Professional Documents
Culture Documents
PlayStation
20
YEARS
100% UNOFFICIAL
INCLUDES THE
FOLLOWING GAMES
q GRAN TURISMO
q FINAL FANTASY VII
q METAL GEAR SOLID
q TOMB RAIDER
q CRASH BANDICOOT
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PlayStation
TM
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PlayStation
TM
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PlayStation is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc
The PlayStation Book 2015 Imagine Publishing Ltd
ISBN 978 1785 461 064
Part of the
bookazine series
PlayStationBoo
Contents
8
RETROINSPECTION: PLAYSTATION
Discover the history of Sonys most important console
20
YEARS
70
48
98
50
64
148
102
106
58
96
124
122
156 FEATURE: NAUGHTY DOG
Andy Gavin explains how his company rose to greatness
RETROINSPECTION
8 | PLAYSTATION
RETROINSPECTION: PLAYSTATION
PlayStation
THE NAME PLAYSTATION HAS BECOME SYNONYMOUS
WITH VIDEOGAMING, BUT SONYS ROUTE INTO THE
INDUSTRY WAS ANYTHING BUT STRAIGHTFORWARD.
JOIN DAMIEN MCFERRAN AS HE CHARTS THE
HISTORY OF WHAT IS ARGUABLY ONE OF THE MOST
IMPORTANT CONSOLES OF ALL TIME
to good use and produce its own videogame hardware. The
ts almost impossible to conceive
industry was growing at an alarming rate thanks largely to
it now, but prior to the 32-bit
Nintendos hugely successful NES and Game Boy systems,
PlayStations launch in 1994 there
and Sony was keen to obtain a foothold.
were real doubts in the media over
The initial agreement between the two rms was that Sony
its chances. Over 100 million hardware
would produce a CD-ROM expansion for the existing SNES
sales later, such pessimism seems
hardware and would have licence to produce games for that
woefully misplaced, but its easy to
system. Later, it was supposed, Sony would be permitted
forget just how many hurdles Sony
to produce its own all-in-one machine dubbed PlayStation
had to overcome to make a success of
which would play both SNES carts and CD-ROM games. The
its rst piece of videogames hardware
format used by the SNES-based version of the PlayStation was
and media scepticism was the least of
called Super Disc, and Sony made sure
those problems.
The PlayStation concept
SPECIFICATIONS BOX that it held the sole international rights in
other words, it would prot handsomely
actually has its roots way back
Year released:
from every single SNES CD-ROM title that
even before the 16-bit generation had
1994 (Japan), 1995 (US/Europe)
was sold. It was a match made in heaven:
hit the marketplace 1988, to be precise.
Original price: 39,800 (Japan),
Sony would instantly gain a potentially
Always thinking a few steps ahead of
$299.99 (US), 299.99 (UK)
massive installed base of users overnight as
its rivals, Nintendo was actively courting
the SNES was a dead cert to sell millions
manufacturers to create some kind of
Buy it now for: 10+
of units. SNES users would upgrade to the
expanded storage device for its Super NES
Associated magazines:
new CD-ROM add-on when they knew
console, which was in development and
PlayStation Plus, Ofcial
that Nintendos cutting-edge games would
due to hit the market in just over a year.
PlayStation Magazine, Play
be coming to it, and Sony would make
Sony in conjunction with Dutch electronics
Why the PlayStation was great
money on each software sale. Whats
giant Philips was working on a new
Some would argue that the
more, once the all-in-one PlayStation was
format called CD-ROM/XA, a new type of
videogame industry in the midlaunched, Sony would gain even more in
compact disc that allowed simultaneous
Nineties was in dire need of a
the way of prots and become a key player
access to audio, visual and computer data,
boot up the backside, and the
in the videogame industry. The man behind
making it thoroughly compatible with the
PlayStation delivered this kick.
this audacious scheme was Ken Kutaragi,
medium of interactive entertainment.
the engineer also responsible for producing
Because Sony was already being contracted Technologically groundbreaking
and supported by a wide range
the aforementioned SNES sound chip.
to produce the SPC-700 sound processor
of third-party developers, the
However, behind the scenes Nintendo
for the SNES, Nintendo decided to enlist
was predictably far from happy with
the electronics manufacturers assistance in machine is home to countless
classic titles. While some of these
the proposed arrangement. It was very
producing a CD-ROM add-on for its 16-bit
games have aged badly, most
protective of its licensing structure, which
console.
remain just as essential today as
allowed it to extract massive royalties
For Sony, it was a dream come true.
they were over a decade ago.
from third-party publishers. Allowing
Having been instrumental in the production
Sony leverage in this sector would only
of the ill-fated MSX computer format,
damage Nintendos protability; the Kyoto-based veteran
the rm never hid its desire to become a key player in the
reasoned that it should be making the majority of the prot
burgeoning videogame business. Therefore, an alliance with
on SNES CD sales, not Sony. The plan if it came to fruition
what was unquestionably the biggest and most famous name
would ultimately benet Sony far more than Nintendo: the
in the industry would not only help elevate Sonys standing; it
former would merely be using the latter as a way of getting
would also enable the company to set the wheels in motion
a ready-made market share and would eventually become
for its ultimate plan: to put its consumer electronics experience
INSTANT EXPERT
QThe Sony PlayStation is the rst
videogames console to sell over
100 million units worldwide
QGran Turismo is the systems
bestselling title, with 10.85 million
copies sold
QThe PlayStation can generate
360,000 at-shaded polygons
per second
QWith only 2MB of main RAM,
the PlayStation struggled with
2D titles that required lots of
animation frames, while its rival
the Saturn fared better thanks
to the fact that it had twice the
amount of memory and could
be expanded still further with a
separate cartridge
QApproximately 7,900
different games were produced
for the PlayStation during its
11-year lifespan
QCumulatively-speaking,
PlayStation software sales stand
at an astonishing 962 million
units worldwide
QEach Sony Memory Card came
with 128KB of storage for save
game data. Higher capacity thirdparty cards were also available
QThe consoles impressive sound
processor can handle 24 channels
of audio
QEarly versions of the machine
were aficted with skipping FMV
and sound, thanks to the poorly
designed nature of the CD drive.
Later models rectied this issue,
but early adopters still shudder
at the memory of having to place
their beloved consoles upside
down in order to get them to
work properly
QEarly UK adverts for the
machine featured SAPS the
Society Against PlayStation
a ctional organisation that
was committed to preventing
the console from ensnaring the
countrys youngsters
PLAYSTATION | 9
RETROINSPECTION
Sony had, by this point, poured a
a determined rival as a result.
signicant amount of cash into the
Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi
proposed PlayStation concept. It had
was famous for being particularly
even moved as far as the prototype
ruthless in his business practices, but
phase, with PC CD-ROM titles such as
what happened next is one of the most
Trilobytes The 7th Guest being mooted
infamous double-crosses in the history
as possible launch games. Despite the
of the videogame industry.
tumultuous events of the 1991 CES,
It was at the 1991 Consumer
a deal was signed between Nintendo
Electronics Show that Nintendo dropped
and Sony that would allow the latter
the bombshell. Sony went to the event
to make its machine compatible with
full of enthusiasm and on the rst day
SNES CD-ROM titles with the proviso
proudly announced the details of its
that Nintendo would retain all software
new alliance with Nintendo, as well as
royalties. Although it was nothing more
news of the Super Disc format and the
than a clever stalling tactic
impending development
by Nintendo to keep Sony
of the SNES-compatible
from entering the market
PlayStation. Sony had less
on its own, this proposed
than 24 hours to soak
alliance nevertheless kept
up the palpable level of
the increasingly frustrated
excitement generated
Kutaragi and his team
by this press conference
busy. However, by 1992
before Nintendo conrmed
it had become clear that
that it was, in fact, working
such a union was going
with Philips on the SNES
nowhere. Sony cut off
CD-ROM drive. Yamauchi
communication with
had gone behind Sonys
Nintendo and the company
back at the last minute
was painfully close to
to broker a deal with
Although SNKs Neo Geo
system had used the same
withdrawing from the
the Dutch company a
concept some years beforehand,
arena for good.
deal that was predictably
Sonys decision to go with
removable data storage for save
Only Kutaragis intense
skewed in Nintendos
game files was regarded by many
resolve and determination
favour leaving Sony
as truly groundbreaking.
prevented the PlayStation
publicly humiliated at the
dream from ending in 1992. During
very moment it had expected to usher
a meeting with Sony president Norio
in a new era as a serious contender in
Ohga in order to decide the future of
the videogaming arena. At the time,
the project, Kutaragi made bold claims
Yamauchi and the rest of Nintendos
about the kind of machine he had been
top brass were suitably pleased with
developing. He argued that the 16-bit
their skulduggery; such swift action had
PlayStation, with its reliance on a union
prevented Sony from taking a sizeable
with the incumbent not to mention
bite out of the companys prots. As it
untrustworthy Nintendo, was a dead
happened, the planned Nintendo-Philips
end. The only option was to go it
alliance resulted in little more than a
alone and create a brand new piece of
handful of risible Nintendo licences on
hardware capable of shifting 3D graphics
the CD-i, and the abject failure of Segas
at a hitherto unprecedented rate. When
Mega-CD seemed to lend credence to
Kutaragis ambitious proposal was
the viewpoint that expanding existing
greeted with derision from the Sony
consoles was a mistake, so while
president, he presented another side to
Nintendo had protected its best interests
his argument: could Sonys pride allow it
by leaving Sony at the altar in such
to simply walk away when Nintendo had
degrading fashion, it actually gained little
so blatantly abused its trust? By making
else of note aside from a dogged rival.
UK gamers were treated to the amusing
Society Against PlayStation advertising
campaign, complete with its dorky spokesman.
10 | PLAYSTATION
Sony PlayStation
Net Yaroze
PSone
RETROINSPECTION: PLAYSTATION
PlayStation
DataCenter
Push Square
Absolute PlayStation
pushsquare.com
absolute-playstation.com
playstationmuseum.com
psxdatacenter.com
RETROINSPECTION
Developer Viewpoint
Robert Troughton (programmer, Destruction Derby)
QIT WAS LATE in 1994 that Sony and myself were launching
into the console games business. Straight out of university, I wasnt
really sure what to expect. Reections, a game developer based
in the North East, were just beginning work on a new genre of
racing game: Destruction Derby. The premise was simple: a racing
game which you win not by coming rst although that helped
but by smashing your competitors cars to a pulp. From starting
in January 95, we had only nine months to complete the project,
with a team consisting of just three programmers and one artist.
The PlayStation was technically leagues ahead of the competition,
with amazing 3D graphics and CD-ROM technology. I cant
remember whether any of us saw daylight for those nine months,
but Im not sure that any of us cared all that much. Sony loved us
for how fast we were creating the game they gave us a release
date that would tie in with the PlayStations US and European
launch the press were all over us and it was clear that the game
was going to be a success. Destruction Derby went on to sell
millions. The PlayStation sold many times more, and Ive stayed
in the industry ever since, still doing what I was doing back then:
hacking away at code and trying to squeeze every last bit of juice
out of whatever platform Im working on and thankful to Sony for
giving me this opportunity.
Station to Station
QRELEASED LATE IN the machines lifespan, the
PocketStation was a self-contained handheld
similar in design to Segas Dreamcast Visual
Memory Unit. Its announcement caused a
surprising degree of excitement, and many
industry insiders condently predicted that
this miniature console was Sonys attempt
to crack Nintendos stranglehold on the
handheld market. Dubbed a personal digital
assistant, it stored save game data just
like a typical PlayStation Memory Card but
could also play crude games on its 32x32 dot
matrix LCD display, although, predictably,
the quality of these titles was well below what
could be experienced on Nintendos Game Boy. An
infrared connection was also included so users could exchange
data without having to connect their PocketStations to their main
console. Launched in 1999, it was only supported by a handful
of titles and sadly never saw release outside Japan although a
release was obviously on the drawing board at some juncture as
several Western games came with PocketStation functionality.
12 | PLAYSTATION
RETROINSPECTION: PLAYSTATION
PlayStation
PERFECT TEN
TOMB RAIDER
01
RELEASE: 1999
01
02
FINAL FANTASY
TACTICS
02
03
14 | PLAYSTATION
GRAN TURISMO 2
RELEASE: 1996
RESIDENT EVIL 2
RELEASE: 1998
RELEASE: 1998
RELEASE: 1997
PUBLISHER: KONAMI
PUBLISHER: CAPCOM
PUBLISHER: SQUARE
CREATOR: IN-HOUSE
CREATOR: IN-HOUSE
CREATOR: IN-HOUSE
INTERNATIONAL SUPERSTAR
03
SOCCER PRO
04
04
05
05
GAMES
06
TEKKEN 3
07
EINHNDER
08
FINAL FANTASY VII
RELEASE: 1998
RELEASE: 1997
RELEASE: 1997
PUBLISHER: NAMCO
PUBLISHER: SQUARE
PUBLISHER: SCE
CREATOR: IN-HOUSE
CREATOR: IN-HOUSE
CREATOR: SQUARE
06
07
SAGA FRONTIER
08
CASTLEVANIA:
SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT
VAGRANT STORY
RELEASE: 1997
PUBLISHER: SQUARE
RELEASE: 2000
PUBLISHER: KONAMI
CREATOR: IN-HOUSE
CREATOR: IN-HOUSE
09
09
10
10
PLAYSTATION | 15
PlayStation
01
02
03
08
09
10
15
16
17
22
23
24
29
30
31
36
37
38
43
44
45
50
51
52
01 HOGS OF WAR
02 NO ONE CAN STOP MR DOMINO
03 BUBBLE BOBBLE FEATURING
RAINBOW ISLANDS
04 FINAL FANTASY TACTICS
05 JUMPING FLASH
06 CRASH BANDICOOT
07 TOMB RAIDER
08 RESIDENT EVIL
09 METAL GEAR SOLID
10 ALUNDRA
11 GRAND THEFT AUTO
12 DOOM
13 ODDWORLD: ABES ODDYSEE
14 HARMFUL PARK
15 AQUANAUTS HOLIDAY
16 KULA WORLD
17 RIDGE RACER REVOLUTION
18 TIME CRISIS
19 RESIDENT EVIL 2
20 FINAL FANTASY VIII
21 PARAPPA THE RAPPER
22 BATTLE ARENA TOSHINDEN
23 DIE HARD TRILOGY
24 EINHANDER
25 RAYMAN
26 NBA JAM TOURNAMENT EDITION
27 TOMB RAIDER 2
28 PEPSI MAN
29 BOMBERMAN FANTASY RACE
30 DIABLO
31 THE DIVIDE: ENEMIES WITHIN
32 PORSCHE CHALLENGE
33 RAPID RELOAD
34 DESTRUCTION DERBY
35 CASTLEVANIA: SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT
36 STREET FIGHTER THE MOVIE
37 MEDAL OF HONOR
38 FINAL FANTASY VII
39 DEVIL DICE
40 TOMBI!
41 RESIDENT EVIL 3: NEMESIS
42 CONTRA: LEGACY OF WAR
43 RIDGE RACER
44 LSD: DREAM EMULATOR
45 DINO CRISIS
46 TENCHU: STEALTH ASSASSINS
47 VIB RIBBON
48 TONY HAWKS PRO SKATER
49 KILEAK THE BLOOD
50 TEKKEN 2
51 NIGHTMARE CREATURES
52 TOMB RAIDER 3
53 WIPEOUT
54 LEMMINGS
55 POWER DIGGERZ
56 TWISTED METAL
16 | PLAYSTATION
04
05
06
07
11
12
13
14
18
19
20
21
25
26
27
28
32
33
34
35
39
40
41
42
46
47
48
49
53
54
55
56
Y
e
a
r
s
2
0
18 | PLAYSTATION
tation
CHANGED GAMING
It was the console that
arguably killed the arcades,
but revolutionised the way we
played at home. David Crookes
looks at why, 20 years on from
its western launch, we shouldnt
underestimate the
power of PlayStation
PLAYSTATION | 19
Y
e
a
r
s
2
0
MARTYN
BROWN
VIDEOGAME
DEVELOPER AND
CONSULTANT
Back then it was all about
3D and especially the T-Rex
demo that was doing the
rounds but we had our
greatest PlayStation hit
with a 2D game: Worms.
24
PAUL RANSON
FORMERLY OF BIG RED
Levels, cutscenes and music previously squished into carts could now
be developed with panache and in a style that we thought emulated the
movie business. PS1 for me was the proper start of the Hollywood style
entertainment in the videogame business.
NUMBER OF GAMES
UNITS SOLD
22
20 | PLAYSTATION
4
8,000,000
ODDWORLD
7
19,000,000
DRIVER
8,500,000
SILENT HILL
14
16
17
29,000,000
9
4,800,000
17
TENCHU
42,000,000
TOMB RAIDER
11
3,900,000
SUIKODEN
12
39,000,000
4
2
8
6
50,000,000
10
CRASH BANDICOOT
14
12
30,000,000
16
18
18
19
20
DARREN FALCUS
MANAGING DIRECTOR OF
HIPPO ENTERTAINMENT
The 3D technology and internal
structure meant that it was a much
easier technology to develop for.
24
19
18
16
14
9
70,020,000
TWISTED METAL
3
2,000,000
MEDIEVIL
12
86,800,000
70,020,000
GRAN TURISMO
600,000
10
13
20
KINGS FIELD
60,000,000
RESIDENT EVIL
6
31,000,000
SYPHON FILTER
2
2,200,000
14
31,000,000
MEDAL OF HONOR
10
8,000,000
WIPEOUT
22
22
10
8
6
4
2
0
PLAYSTATION | 21
Y
e
a
r
s
2
0
RAM
QThe PlayStation packs a
DAVID DARLING
KWALEE CEO & FORMER CODEMASTERS BOSS
It was the first proper 3D games console to gain
significant market share and [Sony was] very active
in supporting and encouraging developers. It was fun
making games with 3D models and polygons rather
than the 2D games wed made for years on machines
like the Sega Mega Drive.
LASER
QConsoles are never
22 | PLAYSTATION
MOTOR
CONTROLLER/
MEMORY CARD
SLOTS
TRANSFORMER
QSome consoles use external
CPU
QRocking a 32-bit R3000A
CHARLIE
CHAPMAN
NET YAROZE
PROGRAMMER
Theres no doubt that the
move from cartridges to
a CD format reduced the
barriers to entry and led to
the release of more games
which perhaps wouldnt
have made it before.
PLAYSTATION | 23
Y
e
a
r
s
2
0
NIGHTCLUBS
PIRACY
GAMES OF SUBSTANCE
QWith so much more storage space, it wasnt
just visuals that could be more impressive
worlds and mechanics could be far more intricate
than ever before. Only a handful of 16-bit games
lasted upwards of 20 hours, but PS1 RPGs would
commonly come in closer to 100 hours.
MATURE GAMES
QThe better graphics got, the
more developers were able to
use games to tell grown-up
stories and faithfully cover
topics that simpler visuals
perhaps wouldnt do justice.
Between visuals, audio and
scale, we finally entered
an era where games could
move and affect players on a
similar level to movies. This
more emotional connection to
games meant that they could
be taken a lot more seriously
as an entertainment medium.
ADVERTS
QIt used to be that advertising agencies
would target the same demographic as
toy retailers when producing campaigns
for games. But by making interesting and
original shorts that broke free from that,
Sonys marketing proved to generate both
conversation and interest in the brand.
NET YAROZE
QThe Net Yaroze provided students and
hobbyist programmers with a chance to
make PlayStation games, opening up the
traditionally closed console development
scene. A small community of bedroom
coders sprang up as a result.
CD FORMAT
NINTENDO/SEGA
24 | PLAYSTATION
3D GAMING
QClever coding allowed 3D (or 3D-style)
visuals on some of the oldest hardware, but
it was the scale on which the PS1 hardware
was capable of rendering 3D worlds and
environments that really blew us all away.
Early polygon visuals havent aged well, but
it was so impressive at the time.
With the tunes from Parappa The Rapper staying with players forever,
little wonder it helped kickstart the whole rhythm-based genre.
JAMES RUTHERFORD
NET YAROZE PROGRAMMER WHO LATER
WORKED ON STUNTMAN AND DRIV3R
Net Yaroze added a whole new dimension to
the PlayStation and it was great to be able to
create games on something that was current and
powerful. Having the games on a magazine cover
disc was a major incentive for us.
PLAYSTATION | 25
Y
e
a
r
s
2
0
STEWART GILRAY
CEO OF JUST ADD WATER
Youll have to remember that 20 years ago games
simply didnt do 3D at home, at least not as well as
the arcades did. So when we got our Japanese import
PlayStation at launch with Ridge Racer, we all sat around
with the joypad in our hands, loaded it up, and raced like
we were playing the arcade version. That blew us away.
DUAL ANALOG
DUALSHOCK 2
DUALSHOCK
QEffectively the same as the previous
26 | PLAYSTATION
DUAL ANALOG
QWith players wanting more
ESSENTIAL
EXTRAS
Six of the best Sony
peripherals
x5 images Evan-Amos
POCKETSTATION
QEffectively a portable device
akin to the Dreamcasts VMU,
PocketStation never saw the
light of day outside of Japan. Over
50 games supported this interesting
device, which plugged into the console
via the memory card port and had its own
LCD screen.
MEMORY CARD
QWhile cartridges sometimes allowed
game data to be saved to internal
memory, the CD format offered no
such luxury. Sonys solution was
a proprietary storage solution a
15-block 1MB memory card to which
game data could be saved.
MULTITAP
QTwo controller ports was enough
for most games but to fully enjoy
something like Micro Machines
V3 (whose predecessor had
additional ports built into the
cartridge itself) or Bomberman,
youd need more. Enter the Multitap.
GUNCON
DUALSHOCK 3
DUALSHOCK 4
GAMESHARK
QPlugging into the consoles parallel
port, these cheat devices allowed
game code to be modified to
activate cheats, alter elements of
a game or even to access content
that wasnt in the final build, including
additional scenes in Final Fantasy VII.
PLAYSTATION | 27
Y
e
a
r
s
2
0
As the sequel to
Flashback, the actionadventure Fade To
Black only made it to the
PlayStation (and PC).
A
would hang around playing Space Invaders and
Galaxians and until the PS1 came out, that kind of thing
made me a geek. But this console changed all that
suddenly videogames were cool not just acceptable,
but actually club culture cool. With a soundtrack from
the coolest techno and dance DJs, videogames
became a part of sub-culture. And it led to a more
mainstream acceptance of consoles in general.
It helped the console to continue to attract adults,
a strategy that Sega had already begun but Sony
seemed to perfect. One of the keys to this was
Steve Race, boss of Sony Computer Entertainment
of America. Race had worked under Kalinske at Sega
and he had no problem competing with his former
workers (indeed, he infamously took to the stage at
the inaugural E3 in Los Angeles just after Sega had
announced the Sega Saturn at a price point of $399,
muttering one word $299 and walking off to
great applause).
Steve knew our strategies of going after an
older audience and being edgy and competitive in
advertising, continues Tom Kalinske. He knew we
would do everything we could to come across as the
superior cool brand, and he did this very well. But I
dont think Sony did anything other than copy lots of
aggressive marketing that we had done at Sega initially
with Genesis. And yet, Sony took its marketing to a
different level.
Although ads did target children (Croc was plastered
on bus shelters near schools) titles like Resident
Evil were certainly aimed at an older audience and
developers did all they could to grab their attention. The
disgraced former publicist Max Clifford used the tabloid
press to whip up a publicity frenzy for controversial
28 | PLAYSTATION
Ridge Racer Revolution was the chunky car sequel to Ridge Racer but the
gameplay remained entirely unchanged.
THE 20 MOST
IMPORTANT MOMENTS
IN PLAYSTATION HISTORY
FINAL FANTASY
JUMPS SHIP
6
SONY GOES IT ALONE
ARCADE-PERFECT PORTS
12
Sonys plan for Vita was simple take on Nintendos handheld dominance by offering consolequality games on the go. Despite huge Monster Hunter-fuelled success in Japan, neither PSP nor
Vita really managed to break the western market, but Sony still hasnt given up trying just yet.
MARKET AWARENESS
DVD READY
PSN HACKED
13
17
JUST DANCE
PS PLUS
18
CD CAPACITY =
BIGGER GAMES
SWAP TRICK
14
10
PLATINUM PRICING
11
LIGHTS, CAMERA...
15
$599
19
20
16
PLAYSTATION | 29
Y
e
a
r
s
2
0
DARRAN
LAUNCH
GAMES*
30 | PLAYSTATION
RAPID RELOAD
Its not quite as good as Gunstar Heroes, which
it is clearly trying to imitate, but its still a great
blaster thats probably more appreciated now than it
NICK
was back then
CHARLES CECIL
REVOLITION SOFTWARE BOSS AND CREATOR OF BROKEN SWORD
The PlayStation oozed sex appeal. Sonys inspired marketing quickly
made videogames hip. And the team at Sony were amazing a small
team of inspirational, creative people who were re-defining the industry:
re-writing the rule book. The two Broken Sword games were incredibly well
received, being voted amongst the top ten best PlayStation games by Official
PlayStation Magazine readers. PlayStation launched a new epoch.
PATRICK BUCKLAND
CEO, STAINLESS GAMES
I was actually involved with them pre-launch. Sony was determined
not to fall into the same trap as the CDi and the 3DO and try to be
everything to all men. They were clearly a games console through and
through, not a multimedia device. They also took the start that Sega
had made with the Mega Drive and made the PlayStation a games
console that you didnt feel embarrassed of.
RIDGE RACER
Riiiiiidge Raaaaaaacer! Yes theres only one track,
but what a track! It still controls exceptionally
well, while the jaunty music and challenging track
design will keep you chasing those top times
DARRAN
JUMPING FLASH
This was probably just as odd a game back then
as it is now, but I can imagine that for its time it
really stood out from anything else. The soundtrack is
JON
definitely worth a mention as well
PLAYSTATION | 31
TOP
25GAMES
PLAYSTATION
24
ISS Pro Evolution
QDEVELOPER:KONAMI
QYEAR: 1999 QGENRE: SPORTS
25
32 | PLAYSTATION
Einhnder
QDEVELOPER: SQUARESOFT
QYEAR: 1997 QGENRE: SHOOT-EM-UP
23
Time Crisis
QDEVELOPER: NAMCO
QYEAR: 1997
QGENRE: LIGHTGUN SHOOT-EM-UP
22
A great
shooter with
music to die for
gmintyfresh
Resident Evil
QDEVELOPER: CAPCOM
QYEAR: 1996 QGENRE: SURVIVAL-HORROR
Capcoms survival-horror
game made a huge impact on its
debut, popularising survival-horror
and shifting over 5 million copies. Locked
inside a deadly mansion lled with mutated
monstrosities, your goal was to take control
of special forces agents Jill Valentine or Chris
Redeld and get out alive along with as
many of your comrades as you could save.
With limited ammunition, there was no hope
of laying waste to every zombie you could
nd a tension-building approach which was
novel in 1996. The fantastic 2002 GameCube
remake means that the original Resident Evil
doesnt have the impact it once did but just
remembering those dogs crashing through
the window easily justies the games place
in this list.
20
19
Stupidly
addictive once you
know what youre
doing, and the songs are
great too.
Alundra
TwoHeadedBoy
21
PLAYSTATION | 33
Silent Bomber
QDEVELOPER: CYBERCONNECT2
QYEAR RELEASED: 1999 QGENRE: ACTION
17
Tomb Raider
QDEVELOPER: CORE DESIGN
QYEAR RELEASED: 1996 QGENRE: ACTION ADVENTURE
18
15
WipEout 2097
QDEVELOPER: PSYGNOSIS
QYEAR: 1996 QGENRE: RACING
14
Psygnosiss sequel
took everything
that was great about the
original and improved on it,
introducing one of gamings
greatest power-ups the
Quake Disruptor. The more
forgiving level of difculty
helped the game to reach a wider audience.
Tekken 3
QDEVELOPER: NAMCO QYEAR: 1998
QGENRE: BEAT-EM-UP
13
Tony Hawks
Pro Skater 2
QDEVELOPER: NEVERSOFT
QYEAR RELEASED: 2000 QGENRE: SPORTS
16
34 | PLAYSTATION
Grandia
12
Gran Turismo
QDEVELOPER: POLYPHONY DIGITAL
QYEAR: 1997 QGENRE: RACING
11
Rage Racer
QDEVELOPER: NAMCO
QYEAR RELEASED: 1996 QGENRE: RACING
10
I realised that
console gaming had
surpassed PC gaming
when this was running
fullscreen, with a
controller
SeanR
Doom
QDEVELOPER: GT INTERACTIVE
QYEAR RELEASED: 1995 QGENRE: FIRST-PERSON SHOOTER
Tekken 2
QDEVELOPER: NAMCO
QYEAR RELEASED: 1996 QGENRE: BEAT-EM-UP
The original Tekken became the best 3D ghting game on the PlayStation almost by
default it was clearly better than the likes of Battle Arena Toshinden, but was still in
need of renement. Tekken 2 provided the tune-up that saw the series become a serious
contender in the 3D ghting world. Staple moves such as reversals and back throws were
introduced here, as well as competitive modes like Team Battle and Survival which cemented
the game as a multiplayer favourite. Tekken 2 introduced a range of new characters, from series
stalwarts such as Jackie Chan homage Lei Wulong to comedy characters such as the boxing
kangaroo Roger. Additionally, unlocking the sub-bosses was now a much more rewarding
endeavour, as the returning characters were eshed out to match the standards of the new subbosses, greatly expanding the casts variety and giving the game increased long-term appeal.
As much as I
loved the rst one,
this just eshed
out the shell of a
game it was
Droo
PLAYSTATION | 35
Castlevania:
Symphony Of The Night
QDEVELOPER: KONAMI
QYEAR RELEASED: 1997 QGENRE: PLATFORMER
5
Ridge Racer Type 4
QDEVELOPER: NAMCO
QYEAR RELEASED: 1998 QGENRE: RACING
Towards the end of the Nineties, it was clear that trends in the
gaming market were changing. The colourful visuals and hyperactive
soundtrack that had served Ridge Racer so well at the PlayStations
launch were out of fashion, and players increasingly demanded longer
games with more content. Luckily for Namco, somebody had a nger on
the pulse of gaming because Ridge
Racer Type 4 shifted effortlessly to
match contemporary tastes. The
game adopted pastel-coloured skies
and a more relaxed soundtrack,
while the racing as excellently
drifty as ever took place across
more tracks and cars than ever
before in the new Grand Prix
season mode.
QDEVELOPER: KONAMI
QYEAR RELEASED: 1998 QGENRE: STEALTH ACTION
QDEVELOPER: SQUARESOFT
QYEAR RELEASED: 1997 QGENRE: RPG
Before 1997, publishers were under the impression that Japanese RPGs just
werent where the big money was to be made. Squaresofts Final Fantasy
VII changed that perception forever, selling over 9 million copies and
causing a boom in RPG localisation. The game introduced a generation of
gamers to the genre and spawned a variety of sequels, as well as a movie.
Final Fantasy VII was an epic on an unprecedented scale. The games use of
pre-rendered backgrounds allowed the game a visual impact unique within
its genre, combining with Nobuo Uematsus incredible soundtrack to aid the story
in emotionally affecting players. And boy, what a story with a memorable cast
of heroes, as well as an iconic villain involved in one of gamings most notoriously
shocking moments, it lingers in the memory long after completion.
This was
pretty much the
reason I even BOUGHT
a Playstation
gunbladelad
36 | PLAYSTATION
QDEVELOPER: ACQUIRE
QYEAR RELEASED: 1998 QGENRE: STEALTH ACTION
Tenchu:
Stealth Assassins
earlymodernsteve
READER
CHOICES
Five Reasons
Why Its Great
Resident Evil 2
QDEVELOPER: CAPCOM QYEAR RELEASED: 1998 QGENRE: SURVIVAL HORROR
PLAYSTATION | 37
38 | PLAYSTATION
DISTRACTIONS
Chocobos
Catching them, riding them, racing
them and breeding them the
Chocobo element of FFVII is a game
in itself, and becomes bewilderingly
complex when youre looking to
breed that lucrative Gold Chocobo,
which can reach parts of the map
that even the Highwind cannot.
Snowboarding
On the second disc, Cloud gets the
opportunity to snowboard down a
mountain. Later in the game, it reemerges as a tricky arcade game at
Gold Saucers Wonder Square. This
mini-game was popular enough to
justify a mobile spin-off, which is
naturally only available in Japan.
First-person
shooting
Visiting the Speed part of Gold
Saucer triggers this bizarre but quite
impressive rst-person shooter
section, where hitting a high score
lands you a prize. This is notable
for its kaleidoscopic visuals, in stark
contrast to much of the game.
Battle on
Fort Condor
Visiting Fort Condor triggers this
intriguing little strategy offshoot,
where you fund small skirmishes
to hold back Shinra forces from the
giant bird perched atop the fort. Its
no Age Of Empires, but it shows
how diverse the ideas are in FFVII.
Motorcycle
chase
One of the nicest surprises early on
is an action-based mini-game where
you have to protect your comrades
from Shinra soldiers on bikes by
ramming them off the road with
Clouds inexplicably large Buster
Sword. Its great fun.
Battle arena
The only way to get Clouds
Omnislash Limit Break outside of
the nale, and a clever means of
extending the combats appeal, the
battle arena on Gold Saucer is a
relentless challenge where you have
to survive successive rounds of
enemies and status ailments.
That death
You knew it would be this
shocking, sad and brilliant
on the part of the Squaresoft
team, a certain character is
murdered by Sephiroth at
the climax of the games rst
act. Its notable because it
is so brutal, but this brave
move to take the character
out of the story meant Final
Fantasy VII would be forever
remembered by players.
Omnislash
The entire game builds to
this nal conict between
Cloud and Sephiroth,
where the hero slices down
the grey-haired villain
in spectacular fashion,
using his nal Limit Break,
Omnislash. All right, so it
isnt necessarily the rst time
you use Omnislash, but its
still a thrilling component of
the games conclusion.
The Weapons
emerge out of
the crater
Sephiroth unleashes
Weapons on the planet, giant
boss-style creatures that,
when put together, look like
something out of a Japanese
monster movie. The idea
of the optional super-boss
is a Final Fantasy staple
here, theyre made a key
turning point in the story, in
another example of Squares
pioneering FMVs.
500 years
later
After the credits, were
treated to this brilliant but
somehow chilling scene, 500
years into the future. We
see Nanaki and his children
42 | RETRO
PLAYSTATION
GAMER
The President
is dead
When Kitase alludes to Jaws,
hes referring to this scene
where the player reaches the
top of Shinra Headquarters
and nds the President
dead, impaled by Sephiroths
katana. Its a brilliant way
to bring the villain into the
story, having him lurk just
out of reach.
Summoning
Knights of
the Round
Knights of the Round was
easily the most lavish
summon spell in the entire
series up until that point.
The animation for the attack,
Ultimate End, sees 13 knights
battering the enemy with
a slew of extraordinarily
powerful moves; a just
reward for the exhausting
process of breeding a Gold
Chocobo to get it.
Sephiroth
walks into
the flames
The highlight of the entire
Nibelheim ashback, told
from the village of Kalm
early on in the story, is an
eye-opening cinematic where
Sephiroth turns away
from Cloud into the ames,
after the twisted warrior
burns the town to the
ground. Perhaps the most
visually recognisable part
of the game.
Zack and
Cloud escape
Nibelheim
In this ashback, the events
of the Nibelheim incident
are fully disclosed. We
learn that Cloud borrowed
Zacks identity, and that
this member of SOLDIER
was gunned down by
Shinra outside Midgar. This
sequence is made all the
more sad when youve earlier
encountered Zacks parents
in the town of Gongaga,
where both his mother
and father are completely
unaware of his tragic fate.
Emerald
Weapon swims
out of the
darkness
Late into the third disc,
heading into the ocean
with the submarine
gives the player a few
surprises, including the
nal whereabouts of the
Turks, Shinras agents
whose paths cross yours
throughout. Thats before
you see bubbles emerge
out of the black, though
when the fearsome Emerald
Weapon drifts towards you in
terrifying fashion. Brr! Its an
absolute bitch to kill, too.
Getting the
Highwind
Final Fantasy as a series is
ingenious in the way it lets
you manoeuvre around the
world. When you get the
Highwind, you can go almost
anywhere in the entire world,
a gloriously freeing reminder
of the diversity of locations
within the game.
RANDY
PITCHFORD
CEO, Gearbox
Software
Obviously,
role-playing
games were a huge
inuence on Borderlands. Final Fantasy
offered many of the standards and tropes
that are borrowed by many role-playing
games of today. The engagement and
motivation that comes from levelling
up and the draw of collecting loot
rst became clear to all of us when
we did such things with pencil-andpaper games. While many PC games
applied these principles, Final Fantasy
managed to capture the design in a
most accessible way at a time when
our controllers had only a D-pad and
two buttons. The elegance of the Final
Fantasy approach to role-playing has
inspired a generation.
In fact, the very rst videogame that
my wife and I played together from
beginning to end was the rst Final
Fantasy game on the NES. To this
day, we have fond memories of that
experience and an irrational loyalty to
the franchise. I know that many people
see Final Fantasy VII as the high-water
mark for the series, but for me it was the
earlier Final Fantasy games on the NES
and Super Nintendo that have had the
most impact.
PLAYSTATION | 43
WHAT HAPPENS
NEXT
SEQUELS IN FINAL FANTASY
44 | PLAYSTATION
The Northern
Crater
DEVELOPER COMMENTARY
DEVELOPER COMMENTARY
MIDGAR
FORGOTTEN
CAPITAL
As this was to be the
location for some of the
most important scenes, it
needed to be eerie, spiritual
and made up from a more
limited number of elements.
In order to convey the idea
of long dead civilisations,
we used the motif of the
fossilised prehistoric sea
bed, with architecture
based on giant shells.
Wutai
The overall
silhouette of
Midgar was
inspired by
looking at a pizza
I was eating with
friends while I was stuck for design
ideas. For the Shinra building, the
overall sense of scale came from
looking up every day at our company
ofces and also had features taken from
structures where practicality inuences
the design, such as the bridge of a
battleship and industrial furnaces.
Forgotten
Capital
Rocket
Town
Corel
Costa
Del Sol
Midgar
Nibelheim
Junon
Cosmo
Canyon
Gold
Saucer
DEVELOPER COMMENTARY
Gongaga
COSMO CANYON
The concept of this area
had been nalised as a
valley and observatory
like the Grand Canyon, so
I had the designers put in
more of a medieval feel,
with fantasy elements
such as the clockwork cosmic spheres
planetarium and the gyroscope compass.
DEVELOPER COMMENTARY
GOLD SAUCER
As there were a lot of mini-games in the title, I
set the question of, What would an amusement
park in this world be like? and made sure
everyone had fun when designing this area.
JUNON
A port town that is also a
military base, Junon is attacked
later on by Sapphire Weapon,
where the giant Junon cannon
ceremoniously takes it down.
THE NORTHERN
CRATER
This is where Jenova landed
about 2,000 years before the start
of the story a creepy, expansive
crater where the climax of the
game takes place.
NIBELHEIM
As more observant players will
know, after Nibelheim was burnt
down by Sephiroth, the entire
town was rebuilt by Shinra and
the citizens replaced with its
employees in a cover-up.
GONGAGA
This sad little town is the
location of an exploded Mako
reactor, with the citizens
mourning their lost. Like a
sister town of Nibelheim, in
a strange way.
WUTAI
A more culturally differentiated
locale to everywhere else, Wutai
is the sole town on the far
western continent, and marks
the only location where the
heroes team up with the Turks.
COREL
Barrets hometown-turned-postShinra-wreck, this is where you
can catch the lift to the far more
jolly Gold Saucer. Theres a ruddy
superb chase sequence here later
in the game, too.
ROCKET TOWN
Built around a launchpad, this is
where one of the more interesting
characters, foul-mouthed pilot
Cid Highwind, hails from. Its
a cheerful moment when they
nally get the rocket into space.
PLAYSTATION | 45
CONSTANTIN
JUPP
Assistant producer,
Media Molecule
Final Fantasy VII
made me realise
that games were so
much more than just running or shooting or
ghting. Far from mindless entertainment,
they could actually stir emotion within the
player. Its the game that inspired me to join
the games industry and help create those
experiences for others.
46 | PLAYSTATION
The Anatomy of
CLOUD
He carries a big sword and
always seems miserable, but just
how much do you know about
Final Fantasy poster boy Cloud?
SWORD &
SORCERY
Though there is a whole load of swords for you to
equip to Cloud that you gather throughout the game,
none are as iconic as his famous starting weapon, the
gigantic Buster Sword. Itd never work in real life, of
course, but then never would Clouds unfeasibly pointy
hair. Besides, Final Fantasy VII is a game about a
half-alien madman trying to destroy the planet being
stopped by a magic wielding team that includes
a man with a gun for an arm and a talking cat.
In other words, forget about realism and
embrace that badass sword.
TROUBLE
& STRIFE
A poster boy for angst, Clouds sullen demeanour
early on in Final Fantasy VII has earned him a notundeserved reputation as being a bit of an arse.
As the game progresses, however, Cloud softens
up a little as we get to know his backstory and the
arrogant, uncaring front he puts up is broken down.
Cloud begins as a former member of elite military
unit SOLDIER, working as a mercenary for
freedom ghters AVALANCHE. However,
theres more to Clouds past than
meets the eye
SUPERSTAR
JACK OF
ALL TRADES
Cloud is unquestionably the best character in
Final Fantasy VII from a gameplay perspective, in
part because hes an all-rounder with high stats in all
categories. Hes got good attack power, meaning youll
probably want him in the front row to dish out damage.
But hes also the second best magic caster after Aeris,
so you can focus on magic with him if you choose. If
thats not enough, Clouds got the most powerful
Limit Breaks in the game, his signature
move and nal Limit Break being the
devastating Omnislash.
PLAYSTATION | 47
48 | PLAYSTATION
PlayStation
NanaOn-Sha
1996
Masaya Matsuura may not have
created the rhythm genre when
he unleashed his cute rapping puppy, but
he arguably popularised it and brought it to
the attention of the gaming masses.
The core mechanics of PaRappa The Rapper
are still widely used today, but in 1996 they
were incredibly innovative, fusing gameplay to
music in a way that few previous games had
been able to successfully manage.
Matsuuras game is ridiculous fun, telling the
tale of our titular hero who wants to steal the
irresistible Sunny Funny away from his canine
rival Joe Chin. What follows is a genuinely
hilarious adventure that sees PaRappa rapping
PLAYSTATION | 49
50 | PLAYSTATION
PLAYSTATION | 51
52 | PLAYSTATION
than the arcades? But, that is not true. You only receive
50 dollars for a console title, maybe up to 100 including
DLC, and then youre done. But hit games in the arcade
keep on performing. We make about as much as the
console release when we sell the initial game and arcade
cabinet, but then keep proting as the game continues
to perform in the arcade. Most people dont know that
we make at least as much, if not much more from our
arcade releases of Tekken. Are you surprised?
Yes. Yes we are, actually, but were even more
surprised to hear that the money made here is poured
right back into the franchise in the form of console
extras. The revenue gained from the arcade is then
invested into the development of the console version,
reveals Harada. That is why compared to other
ghting games, Tekken is able to have more bonus
modes, customisation features, bonus BGM and
additional characters at no added cost to the consumer.
So many console consumers often never realise the
benet they are receiving from Tekken being in the
arcade. That is basically why we develop in this cycle.
Thats probably also why Tekken has survived for 20
years now.
SUPER
MARIO KART
RIBBIT KING
UNREAL
TOURNAMENT
POKMON
FINAL FANTASY X
CHAOS
QTheres a delicious
PLAYSTATION | 53
KILLER COMBOS
The ten-hit strings well never forget
KING
NINA
PAUL
54 | PLAYSTATION
SPECIAL
MOVIES
In ga
ame de
evelop
pment, failu
ures
o
en tea
ach uss qu
uite a lott
Katsuhiro Harada
TEKKEN (2010)
QThe characters nonsensical back-stories
PLAYSTATION | 55
19
5
3
23
20
1
8
7
22
21
ROGUES GALLERY
1KING
2 CHRISTIE
3 MOKUJIN
F/S: Wrestling
F/S: Capoeira
F/S: Mokujin-ken
56 | PLAYSTATION
4 LARS
5 PANDA
6 BOB
F/S: Karate
7 BRUCE
8 ALISA
9 ZAFINA
10 NINA
11PAUL
12 STEVE
F/S: Koppo
F/S: Judo
F/S: Boxing
13 LAW
14 RAVEN
15 ASUKA
F/S: Ninjitsu
25
14
26
24
11
30
28
13
10
27
12
15
29
18
17
16
16 HWOARANG
17 JIN
18 KAZUYA
F/S: Taekwondo
F/S: Karate
19 ARMOR KING
20 EDDY
21LEO
F/S: Wrestling
F/S: Capoeira
F/S: Bajiquan
22 LILI
23 XIAOYU
24 HEIKACHI
25 BAEK
26 KUMA
27 ANNA
F/S: Taekwondo
F/S: Koppo
28 MIGUEL
29 WANG
30 JULIA
F/S: Brawling
F/S: Kenpo/Wushu
PLAYSTATION | 57
LEAD
PROGRAMMER
KEITH
HAMILTON
58 | PLAYSTATION
.
t was 1997. The UK was on a high
year
that
ion
elect
ral
The gene
had brought about the end of a
Conservative government and the
a
beginning of what was said to be
new era. British music was thriving
nt
to the point that a fresh moveme
the
Britpop had been created, with
Song
n
visio
Euro
the
ing
UK even winn
Contest. JK Rowling released the
rst of her Harry Potter novels, The
Cool
Philosophers Stone. The phrase
me
beco
have
may
nnia
Brita
rather tiresome, with The
Economist saying the
following year that the public
had grown sick of it, but it
sure encapsulated the mood
of the time.
Gaming formed part of this
British creative wave. WipEout
was enthralling clubgoers, boys
were lusting after Lara and, fresh
s,
from releasing the classic Lemming
ge
chan
a
ing
sens
was
gn
DMA Desi
in the way games were
being perceived. Dave
Jones, DMAs co-founder, felt
gaming should tap into the
wider world of entertainment.
He wanted people with an
interest in lm, music, books
and a broader sense of popular
culture to play. More than that,
DMA wanted people to forget
that they were playing a game
and immerse themselves into an
environment instead.
The DMA team cracked
on with a city simulator.
Programmer Mike Dailly
thinking. Adding a
writer Brian Baglow.
steal other. And this
his side-on demo, he turned
So we did that. I
a
would attract the
from
type
his second proto
think it was the
attention of any
PUBLISHER: BM
side-on view to a top-down
right decision.
G INTERACTIVE
the
nearby police.
using
,
Then
ive.
perspect
Although design
DEVELOPER: DM
A DESIGN
The initial
rst prototype as a base,
ments existed,
docu
PLATFORM: PC,
PLAYSTATION,
meetings about
he built perspective points
much of the game was
GAME BOY COLOR
the direction of the
using cubes to produce
made up on the spur
RELEASED: 199
game turned out
a pseudo-3D effect.
7
of the moment. The
to be somewhat
GENRE: ACTION
DMAs management
ADVEN
IN THE KNOW
TURE
PLAYSTATION | 59
60 | PLAYSTATION
****ING
READ THIS!
CHASING
CONTROVERSY
GRAND THEFT AUTO wasnt
originally going to be an adul
t
game. The decision really
came quite
late in the day, recalls Pau
l. BMG
Interactive hired Max Cliord
to whip
things up and it worked a trea
t. Not
only did he deal with the fallo
ut from
the controversy, but he gain
ed the
game acres of column inch
es.
I still feel quite bemused abou
t
it all, frankly, says Paul. The
game,
while having some strong cont
ent, had
a very obvious tongue-in-ch
eek sense
of humour. This cheeky scho
olboy
humour combined with the
cartoon
top-down graphics really mad
e it
rather dicult to understand
how the
game could ever be seen as
pushing
the boundaries of taste and
decency. It
was very mild compared to
content on
TV, lm, music and other ente
rtainment
media at the time. We knew
we
had created a great piece of
art, an
innovative and entertaining
game
that stood proud on its own
merits.
We didnt add the mature cont
ent to
make it successful; it was core
to the
entire experience and helped
it stand
out from a crowd of competit
ors. We
were the bad boys, and in a
competitive
market like videogames, som
etimes it
pays to be a little nasty.
The varied
cityscape meant you
could explore for hours.
HITTING
THE STREETS
THE GTA DEVELOPMENT team
liked to muck in. They provided
all of the games voices, and there
were also frequent rows. The team
was always arguing about something,
laughs Paul. There was a lot of positive
friction on the team, but also some
negative stu from time to time. But it
speaks volumes that many of them are
still in touch with each other.
The sense of togetherness and fun
meant they took risks, and this was
evident early on. Usually a developer
would put out a demo in order to attract
the attention of a publisher. Not DMA
Design. When it tried to get a publishing
deal for Grand The Auto, it decided to
shun the normal prototype material and
get out on the streets of Dundee.
The team produced a live-action
video, with a story of someone getting
shot played by lead programmer Keith
Hamilton and then a crazy car chase
put together with some careful editing
using a company car and an old banger
that the team bought specially.
There are shots of us driving along,
hanging out the windows with guns
and doing handbrake turns, says Keith.
This wasnt done on ocially closed
roads just quiet industrial estates.
Unfortunately, I dont have a copy, and
I dont know if any copies still exist. Id
love to see one.
62 | PLAYSTATION
DEVELOPESR
HIGHLIGHT
TO III
GRAND THEFT AU
PC
OX
SYSTEM: PS2, XB
YEAR: 2001
GTA 2
GTA III
GTA ADVANCE
GTA IV
GTA V
THE
HISTORY
OF
64 | PLAYSTATION
PLAYSTATION | 65
Early artwork
this
from 26 April 1995
ODD
WORLDS
We examine other games set
in bizarre universes
BEYOND GOOD
AND EVIL 1992
QTalking pigs? Tick. Or rather, raise
eyebrows. A commercial failure it may
have been, but the planet Hyllis was
under siege and freelance hack Jade
was just the sort to go head-to-head
with the alien race, Domz.
HEART OF DARKNESS
1998
QThe Darklands was a foreboding
THE LONGEST
JOURNEY 1999
QSet in a parallel universe, this point-
66 | PLAYSTATION
ODD ADVENTURES
ABES
ODDYSEE
DEVELOPER:
ODDWORLD
INHABITANTS
PUBLISHER: GT
INTERACTIVE
PLATFORMS:
PLAYSTATION,
WINDOWS
YEAR: 1997
ABES
EXODDUS
DEVELOPER:
ODDWORLD
INHABITANTS
PUBLISHER: GT
INTERACTIVE
PLATFORMS:
PLAYSTATION,
WINDOWS
YEAR: 1998
MUNCHS
ODDYSEE
ODDWORLD
ADVENTURES
DEVELOPER: SAFFIRE
PUBLISHER: SAFFIRE
PLATFORM:
GAME BOY
YEAR: 1998
ODDWORLD
ADVENTURES 2
DEVELOPER: SAFFIRE
PUBLISHER: SAFFIRE
PLATFORM:
GAME BOY COLOR
YEAR: 2000
DEVELOPER:
ODDWORLD
INHABITANTS
PUBLISHER:
MICROSOFT GAME
STUDIOS
PLATFORM: XBOX
YEAR: 2001
MUNCHS
ODDYSEE
DEVELOPER: ART CO
PUBLISHER: THQ INC
PLATFORM:
GAME BOY ADVANCE
YEAR: 2001
STRANGERS
WRATH
DEVELOPER:
ODDWORLD
INHABITANTS
PUBLISHER:
ELECTRONIC ARTS
PLATFORM: XBOX
YEAR: 2005
PLAYSTATION | 67
68 | PLAYSTATION
Five years aer Strangers Wrath, the series was given a dust
down by developer Just Add Water. We talk to founder and CEO
Stewart Gilray about the HD remakes
2009 while still working
on the initial PC release
of Stranger, which was a
straight port from Xbox.
PLAYSTATION | 69
20 Greatest
Games
The
D
E
Y
A
L
P
R
E
V
E
N
E
V
YOU
70| PLAYSTATION
Rapid Reload
QDEVELOPER: MEDIA VISIONQYEAR: 1995 QGENRE: SHOOT-EM-UP
20
Kurushi
QDEVELOPER: G-ARTISTS
QYEAR: 1997 QGENRE: PUZZLE
Kurushi enjoyed a relatively high prole due to its placement on demo discs,
but very few people actually appear to have picked it up. Set on a platform of
oating blocks, you play as a man whose goal is to survive by clearing waves
of massive blocks rolling towards him, while avoiding the black penalty blocks. Failure
to do so correctly will result in the platform shortening, giving less room to tackle the
oncoming waves. Its a tricky puzzler, which boasts an oppressive atmosphere thanks
to its stark aesthetic its just you, the blocks and the endless darkness that waits
below. Theres also a sequel available titled Kurushi Final, which adds extra game
modes for the most hardcore players.
19
Tombi!
QDEVELOPER: WHOOPEE CAMP QYEAR: 1997 QGENRE: PLATFORM
The Koma Pigs have stolen a bracelet from Tombis grandfather, and
thats something he just wont stand for. As a result, our pink-haired
protagonist sets out on a quest to retrieve it, while leaping on pigs and
chucking them about the place. Its all rather uncivilised, but he is a caveman
after all. This adventure platformer isnt divided into stages, but calls to mind
the formula of the later Wonder Boy games as it takes place as one long
quest, in which, youll always be pursuing multiple goals at the same time.
The high quality of Tombis rst adventure didnt ensure sales success, and
the game was overlooked upon release, being seen as outdated due to its
2D gameplay. A sequel with fully 3D visuals was released later on, but it too
failed to nd a great deal of success and Whoopee Camp disbanded shortly
afterwards. As a result, both Tombi! and its sequel are rare and expensive
games, with the original typically changing hands for 50 or more.
17
Pepsiman
QDEVELOPER: KID QYEAR: 1998 QGENRE: PLATFORMER
18
PLAYSTATION | 71
Suzuki Bakuhatsu
QDEVELOPER: SOLQYEAR: 2000 QGENRE: PUZZLE
15
16
Incredible Crisis
QDEVELOPER: POLYGON MAGIC
QYEAR: 1999 QGENRE: PARTY
14
72 | PLAYSTATION
13
Vagrant Story
Power Diggerz
QDEVELOPER: SQUARESOFT
QYEAR: 2000 QGENRE: ACTION-RPG
12
Devil Dice
QDEVELOPER: SHIFT
QYEAR: 1998 QGENRE: PUZZLE
11
No, we havent got the genre wrong in a just world, Power Diggerz
would be remembered as one of the best mini-game collections ever
to hit the market. The game sees you placed in charge of some heavyduty construction equipment, performing tasks like scooping sand, tearing
down buildings and clearing paths blocked by volcanic rocks. However, the
serious stuff isnt the reason why Power Diggerz is so appealing the real
joy lies in the mini-games, in which you perform bizarre tasks like scooping
turtles from a swimming pool and serving curry onto giant plates. If you can
think of a bizarre way to utilise a power shovel, its probably in this game.
The game is put together fantastically well, and offers the multiplayer
mode required to become a proper party classic. Unfortunately, there is
one particular aw that keeps it from reaching its full potential the control
system. While intuitive and responsive it uses every button on the pad and
thus requires players to spend some time learning to play properly. Its
clearly been done for the love of heavy machinery, which the game exhibits
in spades all the vehicles are licensed Komatsu models. You certainly cant
accuse Taito of failing to make the most of the games subject matter.
Power Diggerz seemed to have everything going for it upon release it
went down well with the press, earning scores as high as 92% in Play, and
hit the shelves at a budget price. Its even got the universal sign of high
quality: an intentionally misspelled title which uses Z to pluralise a word.
Unfortunately, by the time the game made the journey to international
audiences in 2001, much of the gaming market had already moved on to
newer consoles. Go back and pick up a copy, because youll really dig it.
10
Aquanauts Holiday
QDEVELOPER: ARTDINK
QYEAR: 1995 QGENRE: SIMULATION
PLAYSTATION | 73
Sanvein
QDEVELOPER: SUCCESS
QYEAR: 2000 QGENRE: SHOOT-EM-UP
7
Vib Ribbon
QDEVELOPER: NANA ON-SHA
QYEAR: 2000 QGENRE: RHYTHM ACTION
5
Harmful Park
QDEVELOPER: SKY THINK SYSTEMS
QYEAR: 1997 QGENRE: SHOOT-EM-UP
74 | PLAYSTATION
Guardians Crusade
QDEVELOPER: TAMSOFT
QYEAR: 1998 QGENRE: RPG
Kula World
QDEVELOPER: GAME DESIGN SWEDEN AB
QYEAR: 1998 QGENRE: PUZZLE
This abstract puzzler is a real gem, and one of the best mental workouts
available on the PlayStation. Each stage takes place in a oating structure
comprised of interconnected cubes, and your goal is to guide a beach ball
around them, in order to collect keys before reaching the exit. This sounds simple,
but is made much more complex by the games convenient physics rolling over
the edge of a cube wont result in an untimely plummet, but instead a reorientation
of gravity. This means that each stage has six different oor surfaces and can be
approached in a number of different ways, but the area you want to be in will always
be tantalisingly difcult to actually reach. With over 150 stages, Kula World will keep
you occupied for a long time.
Kula World is an uncommon release, meaning that many of the players who
were interested in the full game never got to try it. That rarity meant that copies
used to change hands for as much as 50, but its now much easier to obtain
thanks to cheap digital re-releases. Even original copies shouldnt set you back more
than around 25 now, with US imports coming in even cheaper.
Laying a great line of dominoes is a tricky job at the best of times one false move
and all your time is wasted. So youve got to feel for poor Mr Domino, our titular hero
in this game, who has to do so while avoiding obstacles and laying the dominoes
from his own back. Yes indeed, its another weird one which is perhaps no surprise,
given that Artdinks other game in this list is Aquanauts Holiday.
At its core, Mr Domino is a score attack puzzle game your goal is to lay trails of
dominoes leading to trick points while you run a predetermined circuit. When you hit
your second lap, youll be able to knock down the previously-laid dominoes and set
off the tricks. If you started your chain from the right place, you can even perform
trick combos! Of course, as you try to set up your lines youll be accosted by cats,
vegetables and even the odd sumo wrestler. You also have a limited number of
dominoes to work with and strict time limits to adhere to, making this a trickier game
than you might imagine from just looking at it.
While the gameplay is perfectly good, much of Mr Dominos appeal comes from just
how weird it is. Your protagonists tricks quickly escalate from knocking down towers
of cards to causing a housewife to discover a bomb in her oven, and later causing a
meteor strike. While its all played off as humour, we do wonder how sympathetic this
protagonist is really meant to be
PLAYSTATION | 75
SILENT HILL
Haunted House, Alone In The Dark, and Resident Evil three major survival
horrors which birthed and evolved the concept. Then suddenly in 1999, some
viewing it as bandwagon jumping, Konami gave the genre a darker shade of
depravity through Silent Hill. Lets return to that town, a nightmarish place of
burned children, satanic cults, and a malevolence which lurks behind the shadows
IN THE KNOW
PUBLISHER: KONAMI
DEVELOPER: IN-HOUSE
PLATFORM: PLAYSTATION
RELEASED: 1999
GENRE: SURVIVAL HORROR
76 | PLAYSTATION
THE KIDS
ARENT
ALRIGHT
This is the deformed serpent boss. But look to the right. Notice
the human body engulfed in flames? Creepy.
DEVELOPER
HIGHLIGHTS
GENSO SUIKODEN (PICTURED)
SYSTEMS: PS1, SATURN
YEAR: 1995
LEGEND OF THE
MYSTICAL NINJA
SYSTEMS: SNES
YEAR: 1991
TOKIMEKI MEMORIAL
SYSTEMS: PC ENGINE
YEAR: 1994
This is precisely what we mean. Large, chunky and pixelated visuals. Filthy and rust-covered, everything conveys a sense of foreboding.
PLAYSTATION | 77
pcoming
u
an
by
ed
in
dl
ea
h
n
io
at
ass gener
a new type of
d
de
al
A precursor to the Jack
er
h
ly
on
ot
n
er
at
k
Pro S
sports icon, Tony Hawkgsnalled the arrival of an entire culture. Looking
videogame genre but sigan, Neverso co-founder Mick West discusses
back at where it all bes of one of the biggest franchises of all time
the humble origin
78 | PLAYSTATION
SKATER PROFILES
A closer look at the
roster of characters
TONY HAWK
BOB BURNQUIST
KAREEM
CAMPBELL
RUNE GLIFBERG
IN THE
KNOW
BUCKY LASEK
CHAD MUSKA
PUBLISHER: ACTIVISION
DEVELOPER: NEVERSOFT
skateboarding career,
Lasek is also a professional
rallycross driver.
PLATFORM: VARIOUS
RELEASED: 1999
GENRE: EXTREME SPORTS
ANDREW
REYNOLDS
GEOFF ROWLEY
prowess, Reynolds is a
successful entrepreneur.
QLiverpool-born Geoff
Rowley was given Thrasher
magazines coveted Skater Of
The Year Award in 2000.
ELISSA STEAMER
JAMIE THOMAS
PLAYSTATION | 79
Mick West
PLaylist
DEAD KENNEDYS
Police Truck
THE ERNIES
EVEN RUDE
Villified
GOLDFINGER
Superman
PRIMUS
SPEEDEALER
Screamer/Nothing to Me
Cyco Vision
New Girl
UNSANE
Committed
THE VANDALS
Euro-Barge
80 | PLAYSTATION
DAVE MIRRA
FREESTYLE BMX 2000
SUNNY GARCIA
SURFING 2001
MAT HOFFMANS
PRO BMX 2001
KELLY SLATERS
PRO SURFER 2002
SHAUN WHITE
SNOWBOARDING 2008
DEVELOPER
HIGHLIGHTS
APOCALYPSE
SYSTEM: PLAYSTATION
YEAR: 1998
SPIDERMAN
SYSTEM: VARIOUS
YEAR: 2000
GUN PICTURED
SYSTEM: VARIOUS
YEAR: 2005
PLAYSTATION | 81
TONY HAWKS
PRO SKATER 3
TONY HAWKS
PRO SKATER 2X
TONY HAWKS
PRO SKATER 4
TONY HAWKS
UNDERGROUND
TONY HAWKS
UNDERGROUND 2
82 | PLAYSTATION
TONY HAWKS
AMERICAN WASTELAND
ick reects on
how the studio
approached
creating a brand
new type of game. The biggest
challenge was learning how to do
it. We didnt know what we were
doing and therefore there was
a lot more experimentation.
The team had been familiar
with the genres it had
explored in previous
titles. Apocalypse was
a third-person shooter,
which was also similar to
a prototype the studio had
worked on before getting
If you successfully
pulled off a string of
tricks your special
bar would fill. Each
character had a
selection of individual
special moves.
TONY HAWKS
DOWNHILL JAM
TONY HAWKS
PROJECT 8
TONY HAWKS
PRO SKATER HD
TONY HAWKS
PROVING GROUND
TONY HAWKS TONY HAWK:
MOTION
RIDE
TONY HAWK:
SHRED
PLAYSTATION | 83
BIO
Prior lightgun games had
simply required the player to
be quicker and more accurate
than the enemy, but Time
Crisis included a foot pedal
which allowed the player to
dive in and out of cover to
reload an incredibly simple
idea which added a new
layer of depth to the genre.
However, the entire game
took place against the clock,
adding pressure and ensuring
that players couldnt be too
methodical in their approach
to blasting the bad guys. Time
Crisis became a massive hit
in 1995, ensuring the release
of a PlayStation conversion as
well as a series of sequels.
Time Crisis
PLATFORM: PLAYSTATION DEVELOPER: NAMCO RELEASED: 1995
84 | PLAYSTATION
MORE CLASSIC
TIME CRISIS MOMENTS
Explosive arrival
Continuing the cinematic
theme, Richard Millers arrival in
the rst stage is full of action.
Sliding down a zip line into
the enemy base, the carnage
escalates quickly as enemy
troops scramble to deal with the
intruding secret agent, a submarine in the background explodes
and begins to sink as red warning lights illuminate the area. You
dont spend long in this rst area, but it makes a huge impact.
Secret agent
Finding secrets in arcade games
is always satisfying, just for
those moments when you get to
impress a spectator who hasnt
yet seen them. Early in Stage
Two of Time Crisis youll come
across some girders. If you shoot
the wrap thats holding them together a few times, theyll fall and
send all the enemies eeing, saving yourself valuable seconds in the
race to rescue the Presidents daughter.
Backpedal
Time Crisis doesnt just throw
gun-toting bad guys at you
the entire environment can be
called into action as a hazard. A
battle amidst a group of parked
cars quickly takes a turn for
the worse for our hero as a
car comes sliding around the corner and begins to drive straight
towards him, requiring quick release of the pedal in order to avoid
eating bumper.
Unfriendly dialogue
Part of the charm of Time Crisis
is that the dialogue is hilariously
bad. Lines like How could you?
You killed my boss! wouldnt
make the script of even the
cheapest of cheap B-movies. The
character who best combines
hammy voice acting and risible writing is Sherudo Garo, the second
stage boss, who decides that you need to be entertained so he
slings throwing knives at you. Obviously
PLAYSTATION | 85
IN THE KNOW
PUBLISHER: SONY
DEVELOPER: NAUGHTY DOG
PLATFORMS: PLAYSTATION
RELEASED: 1996
GENRE: PLATFORMER
86 | PLAYSTATION
NEW DOG,
NEW TRICKS
IF NAUGHTY DOGS original intent
was to create a new and iconic gaming
mascot, it would seem that there
can be little doubt about its success.
Since the original games release in
1996, Crash has gone on to star in an
additional 17 titles available on over half
a dozen various platforms. Perhaps
even more importantly, the character
has moved beyond the constraints
of his original platforming genre and
stepped up to compete with the big boys
in nearly every genre in which Sonic
The Hedgehog or Mario have found
success. Over the years, Crash has
risen to the challenges presented by
and competed with such gaming power
houses as Mario Kart 64 and the Mario
Party series. The greatest example of
the strength of the original concept and
character design, however, shows in the
characters continued popularity despite
diculties encountered as control of
the Crash Bandicoot IP changed hands,
going from Naughty Dog to Travellers
Tales to Radical Entertainment.
DEVELOPER
HIGHLIGHTS
CRASH TEAM RACING
SYSTEM: PLAYSTATION
YEAR: 1999
UNCHARTED 2: AMONG
THIEVES PICTURED
SYSTEM: PS3
YEAR: 2009
We made a bunch of
really innovative choices that
influenced our direction
According to folklore, if the head of Universal Interactive Entertainment had had his way, Crash would have been called Wizzy the Wombat or Ozzie the Ottsel.
88 | PLAYSTATION
MASCOT MARKETING
AROUND THE TIME of Crash Bandicoot s
release, it was almost impossible not to
think of Crash whenever anyone mentioned
the Sony PlayStation. Though he may not
have been the systems ocial mascot,
advertising campaigns for the game seemed
spun to ensure that any viewer would
associate the game with Sonys entrance
into the console market. This was more
noticable in some advertisements than
others. For example, one commercial
featured Crash Bandicoot arriving at
Nintendo headquarters to taunt Mario by
PLAYSTATION | 89
Racing By Design
Racing By Design
- The Complete
Arguably the
most iconic
Arguably
thePlayStations
PlayStations
most racing
iconic franchise,
racing franchise,
buckle up
up and
tight
as Stuart
Hunt
buckle
andhold
hold
tight
as Stuart
Hunt
recountsthe
the history
of WipEout,
Sonys
most most
recounts
history
of Wipeout,
Sonys
enduring racing series
90 | PLAYSTATION
History of Wipeout
The Complete History of WipEout
PLAYSTATION | 91
92 | PLAYSTATION
WipEout
Takes place: 2052
AG racing league: F3600
Number of teams: 4
WipEout 2097
The franchise has always served to show off the
power and function of the machine its running on, its
particularly evident in WipEout 2048.
WipEout 64
Takes place: 2098
AG racing league: F5000
Number of teams: 5
Wip3out
Takes place: 2116
AG racing league: F7200
Number of teams: 8
WipEout Fusion
Takes place: 2160
AG racing league: F9000
Number of teams: 8
WipEout Pure
Takes place: 2197
AG racing league: FX300
Number of teams: 8
Wipeout
Wip3out
looks
like
looks like
nothing
more
nothing
more
than a nice bit
than a nice bit
of minimalist
of minimalist
artwork,
artwork, until
until
you
you take
take aa
closer
closerlook
look
WipEout HD
Takes place: 2205
AG racing league: FX350
Number of teams: 12
WipEout Pulse
Takes place: 2207
AG racing league: FX400
Number of teams: 12
PLAYSTATION | 93
94 | RETRO
PLAYSTATION
GAMER
As well as the PlayStation, WipEout also graced the Sega Saturn and PC.
The Saturn version (released in 1996) is slightly smoother than the PS
version, but lacks particle effects.
Wipeinfluences
Wipeinuences
F-Zero
Powerdrome
Infestation
Matrix Marauders
Q WipEouts combat-infused
racing and randomised
weapon pads were inspired
by the classic SNES kart racer.
WipEout s lead designer Nick
Burcombe was a big fan, and
wanted to channel its brilliance
into the game.
WipEout 3 would mark the final WipEout game to have design partnership with
The Designers Republic. The relationship lasted four years.
PLAYSTATION | 95
96 | PLAYSTATION
SNAKE? SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAKEEEEEEEE!
PLAYSTATION | 97
CLASSIC GAMES
YOU'VE NEVER PLAYED
N
O
I
T
A
T
S
Y
PLithAover 4000
W
ased in n,
games rele
s lifespa
the consoslea lot of
there wa at were
games th. Jonny
forgotten tries to x
Dimaline tice and
that injuse of those
give somchance in
games a ght
the spotli
98 | PLAYSTATION
SLAP HAPPY
RHYTHM
BUSTERS
DEVELOPER:POLYGON MAGIC YEAR: 2000
IN DEPTH
SUPER METER
UNIQUE STYLE
VARIED
CHARACTERS
GREAT SOUND
RAGUKA KIDS
NINTENDO 64
DREAMCAST
DRAGLADE
NINTENDO DS
PLAYSTATION | 99
FOX JUNCTION
CYBER ORG
DEVELOPER: SQUARESOFT
YEAR: 1999
100 | PLAYSTATION
SUPER ROBOT
SHOOTING
DEVELOPER: MINATO GIKEN
YEAR: 1997
GERMS
NERAWARETA
MACHI
DEVELOPER: KEJ
YEAR: 1999
EXTRA BRIGHT
DEVELOPER: TO ONE
YEAR: 1996
KURUKURU
MARUMARU
DEVELOPER: JAPAN ART MEDIA
YEAR: 2001
RETRO
STINK
ER
CHAO
SB
REAK
DEVE
LOPER:
EON
Loos
YEAR: 19
ely b
92
Chaos H ased on the arc
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unskipp
even an
able su
doku
puzzle.
PET IN TV
DEVELOPER: SCEI
YEAR: 1997
PLAYSTATION | 101
Die Hard Trilogy was the quirky PlayStation hit that successfully
melded old-fashioned arcade action with new-fangled 3D tech.
Martyn Carroll talks to the guys at Probe Entertainment who took allAmerican hero John McClane and placed him in a very British game
IN THE KNOW
PUBLISHER: FOX INTERACTIVE
DEVELOPER:
PROBE ENTERTAINMENT
PLATFORM:
PLAYSTATION, SATURN, PC
RELEASED: 1996
GENRE: 3D FILM TIE-IN
102 | PLAYSTATION
SEGA GAGA
DIE HARD TRILOGY is best known as a PlayStation game,
but it was also released on the Saturn and PC. The Saturn
version plays like a bit of a dog, and Simon reveals why:
In the previous generation, when you were doing
Spectrum and Amstrad games, you could pretty much
write the Spectrum version and port it to the Amstrad
really easily you just changed the render code and it
all worked. We thought it would be the same with the
PlayStation and Saturn, so we said wed concentrate on
the PlayStation version and then worry about the other
versions later. Two or three months before the end of the
project, these two guys came in and I just said, Heres my
code, go away and port it. It was full of PlayStation-isms,
and it was the rst game Id written in C and my C code
was awful, and it was a real nightmare for them, the poor
buggers. It was really slow and choppy as they had to
emulate a lot of the hardware, but they managed to do it.
One thing that really annoyed me was when Driver came out, says Simon.
They had a free roam mode where you could just drive around the city, and I
thought, Damn it, we should have done that!
It was particularly funny for us because the enemies had the faces of team
members, says James, so we were shooting people we worked with.
Therewascertainlynothing
pretentious about it. It was just
a good, fun game
JAMES DUNCAN
The Die Hard 2 section was one of the first PlayStation games to include mouse
and lightgun support.
The main impetus behind the production of Die Hard Trilogy, Simon Pick (standing)
and Dennis Gustafsson.
PLAYSTATION | 103
Its really quite bad, says Simon about the games blood. I
wouldnt let my eight-year-old boy play it!
The hidden Die Hard 2 level editor is exactly the same as the one used in the games development.
One of the objectives in DH2 was to prevent hostages from getting mowed down, if you could be bothered.
If the bosss bright red jumper didnt make him stand out, the
massive signpost above his head probably did.
FOX
FIGHTS
BACK
20TH CENTURY FOX had
minimal input during the games
development, and only objected
if the team added something that
had nothing to do with the lms.
One case in point was the teams
original depiction of New York City.
Dennis tells the tale: When the
Fox producers saw an early demo
of our driving game, the levels had
jumpy hills, meandering roads
and bendy curves that led into
sewers. I remember they were
strangely unimpressed by the wild
and crazy driving experience that
we had going.
When Dennis arrived in New
York to snap some location pictures
for the game, he soon found out
why. One of the producers, Scott,
took me downtown and literally
dragged me out into the trafc. We
stood in the middle of the street
and Scott said look and pointed
down the street. I looked. Then he
pointed in the opposite direction
and said look again. I looked.
What do you see? he asked. I
replied: Straight, wide streets, no
curves, no hills, no nothing. Just
cars. Scott nodded, having made
his point, and walked off, leaving
me to my own devices. The rest of
the stay I took hundreds of pictures
of all the areas that were to be
included in the game.
DEVELOPER
HIGHLIGHTS
GOLDEN AXE
SYSTEM: C64, AMIGA, ST
YEAR: 1989
ALIEN TRILOGY
SYSTEM: PLAYSTATION,
SATURN, PC
YEAR: 1996
The team rigged an old church with infrared cameras and used them for motion capture.
This clever visual trick lets you see through walls as you explore Nakatomi Plaza in DH1.
106 | PLAYSTATION
ethevstoryi l ofrriresident
se evils
Capcoms Resident Evil
series is one of the most
famous in videogames,
having spawned everything
from action figures to
Hollywood blockbusters.
But the story behind the
franchise is more intriguing
and fantastical than any of
its fictions : its a story of
determination, jealousy,
bankruptcy and people
pushed to the limit. Steve
Burns welcomes you back to
the world of survival-horror
PLAYSTATION | 107
108 | PLAYSTATION
Re sident Evil
Although Resident Evil s
supernatural elements were
cut early on, its rumoured
some versions did feature trace
elements of this thinking. In one
build, the player would pass
walls where blood would form
messages for the player.
Shockingly, Barry Burton also
wasnt in the game to begin
with. Instead we got Gelzer, a
tank-like behemoth that would
hold the ceiling from collapsing
on Jill in the shotgun trap
room. Elements of his character
were eventually moulded into
the Barry we all know and
love. Another character not to
make the cut was Dewey, who
was to be a playable character
unlocked after nishing the
game, described by Mikami
as an Eddie Murphy type who
would provide comic relief.
Early footage showed Chris
ghting the mutated snake
Yawn in the shed that leads to
the guardhouse. The shed was
changed in the nal release,
and the battle removed, but the
two exits on the beta map are
still in place in the FMV that
introduces the Hunter. In fact,
the beast even enters through
one of them in the video.
Re sident Evil 2
Originally, players would run
into the support characters.
Leon met cop Marvin Branagh
and researcher Linda, while
Elza had a guy named John
and Sherry Birkin.
Re sident Evil 3
The opening of Resident Evil 3
is different in earlier builds.
Instead of showing Jill leaving
her hotel and bursting onto
the streets of Raccoon City,
the beta shows a series of
images of STARS members
arguing with RPD Chief Irons,
before showing Jill walking the
wrecked streets of Racoon City.
Re sident Evil 4
In the demo for Resident Evil 4
some unused items that didnt
make it to the nal cut are
still there, including infrared
goggles. Another beta shows
other items in Leons inventory,
including a sh!
Re sident Evil 5
Despite many gamers dearest wishes, Resident
Evil 2 was mostly confined to one location.
W o a h, t h i s
hal l i s
patterns, the
same gameplay
each time,
producer Hiroyuki
Kobayashi states on The
Making of Resident Evil 4.
So I spoke to Mikamisan
about reshaping the
game,
winning back the fans and winning
new fans that would never play a
Resident Evil game.
Mikami threw himself into the
production with gusto. As part of
the Capcom Five, an exclusive
agreement between Capcom and
Nintendo to put out ve games on
the GameCube system, Mikami was
nothing if not zealous. He insisted
that Resident Evil 4 wouldnt appear
on the PS2, threatening that he
would cut his head off if such a
thing came to pass. Naturally, it
did, but thankfully Mikami hasnt
suffered a decapitation yet.
He approached the game with
the same attacking instinct as he
had the PR. In the directors
chair that he so coveted, he
began another reign of
perfectionist terror. There
was also the old pressure
on his shoulders that he
hadnt felt since the rst
game: Mikami knew that
if Resident Evil 4 hadnt
been a hit, it would
have been the end for
the franchise he
helped create.
Yet another
countdown
had started.
d a n g e r o u s!
Finding out
who wrote
that dialogue
NO HISTORY OF Resident Evil
is complete without mention of
the dialogue that has given us
the fear over the years, and not
always for the right reasons.
The original games dialogue
was written in-house by Kenichi
Iwao, and is rightly regarded
as both the best and worst the
series has to offer. Barry Burton
got most of the best lines: who
can forget classics such as You
were almost a Jill sandwich, I
hope this isnt Chriss blood and
The master of unlocking!
Sadly for everyone involved,
Resident Evil 2 saw the
introduction of Capcoms
relationship with Flagship,
a company geared around
improving the quality of game
scripts. Founded by Noboru
Sugimura and Yoshiki Okamoto
(along with two others) after
they had collaborated on putting
Resident Evil 2 s script in order,
the company would then advise
on Resident Evil 3 s script (again
written internally). Mikami would
co-write 4, before four different
writers would collaborate on
Resident Evil 5. Although sadly
we dont know who wrote Albert
Weskers unintentionally dirty
complete, global saturation line.
Unfortunately, Sugimura passed
away in 2005, but his legacy still
stands today.
PLAYSTATION | 111
3. Albert We sker
(RESIDENT EVIL 5)
Chris and Sheva have to work together to take out
the virus-enhanced madman in Resident Evil 5 s
gripping nale. Nice mechanics turning out the
lights so he cant see you; teaming up to inject him
with a strength-sapping serum complement the
satisfying feeling of nally kicking Weskers ass.
2. Li sa Trevor
(RESIDENT EVIL REMAKE)
Lisa is horribly disgured, and her mind has
been savagely twisted after spending years
being experimented upon by Wesker, Birkin
and Spencer. Unkillable, theres a both a
horrible feeling of helplessness and a twinge
of compassion as she stalks you in the
remake, begging for a death you cant give
her. Absolutely chilling.
1. Neme si s
(RESIDENT EVIL 3)
If Resident Evil 2 is akin to Aliens, then 3 is The
Terminator: a lean chase movie with a villain that
seemingly cant be stopped. Hearing his signature
music, and seeing him cry STAAAAAARS! is
enough to send a chill down any gamers spine,
and he keeps on coming and coming
112 | PLAYSTATION
The sound
of terror
One of the greatest openings of any game, Resident Evil 4 s really set the tone for the whole experience.
Shevas introduction in Resident Evil 5 is fine in co-op, but her AI is too troublesome to make singleplayer anything other than a chore.
Its a telling
statement, that of
keeping an eye on
Western developers,
because Resident Evil 5
has been accused of both
being in awe of Western
design philosophy
(co-op, a shoe-horned
in cover system) and
not changing enough
with the times. Takeuchi
and Kawata would
describe the project as
extremely demanding
on both a physical and
psychological level in
Piggybacks Complete
Ofcial Guide
Collectors Edition and
Takeuchi noted to
G4TV that his
experiences on Resident
Evil 5 had gone some
way to inuencing his
decision on whether or
not to work on the next
numbered title in the
series. Right now,
pretty much every day
myself, Kawata and
another producer at
Capcom Japan are
One of the biggest triumphs of Resident Evil: Revelations 2 was the return of Barry
Burton who was looking for his daughter Moira, another playable character.
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ALBERT WESKER
Series villain and Chriss nemesis (and tormentor),
Wesker pulls all the strings in his plot for world
domination. Assassination, subterfuge and even
genocide are all in a days work, and his tendrils
snake through the whole series.
CONNECTIONS: Ozwell Spencer, Ada
Wong, Chris Redeld, Umbrella, STARS,
William Birkin, HCF, Tricell,
The Organisation
APPEARANCES: Resident Evil,
Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil:
Code Veronica, Resident Evil
4 (side-story), Resident Evil
5 +6, Resident Evil: The
Umbrella Chronicles,
Resident Evil: The
Darkside Chronicles
il:
Ev
Rogue s
gallery
PLAYSTATION | 115
Gran Turismo
PLATFORM: PlayStation DEVELOPER: Polyphony Digital RELEASED: 1997
BIO
Not many games are in the
works for ve years, but
Gran Turismo was worth
every single day of labour.
Having entered development
two years before the
PlayStations launch, the
game arrived in the nal days
of 1997 and redened players
expectations of console
racing games. Its packaging
proudly declared it to be The
Real Driving Simulator and
it was hard to argue, thanks
to an impressive handling
model, a 140 car roaster and
stunning visuals. Universal
critical acclaim followed, and
a staggering 10.85 million
copies were sold.
116 | PLAYSTATION
Petrolheads Paradise
The range of cars and turning
options in Gran Turismo was
unprecedented for a console
game, and it was something
of a dream come true for the
racing enthusiast. A dedicated
player could nd hours of
satisfaction simply by buying
cars and modifying them, in an attempt to extract the maximum
performance from every single one of the games 140 cars.
PLAYSTATION | 117
A big-eyed bouncing
rabbit and a game that let
you literally play your CD
collection. Paul Drury asks
Masaya Matsuura all about
his thing on a string
118 | PLAYSTATION
WHATS THE
FREQUENCY, ALEX?
Matsuura has been
dubbed the father of
rhythm-action games
and Alex Rigopulos,
head of Harmonix, the
home of Rock Band, has
a personal debt of
gratitude to him.
He came to me before
they did Frequency,
says Matsuura, and
he had a very smart
system. They used a joystick for controlling the audio. How you moved
it could change the notes and the frequency but for me, it sounded too
random. I said to him something very simple: think about the game. This
is a very interesting experimental system but maybe the audience needs
play, excitement, results and be satised by playing the game. Focus on
these things for your content. Sound advice. We wonder if he has any
predictions for future developments in the eld. I think we have great
possibilities for game-based music and music-based games. I really want
to explore different categories of music for example, serious classical
music. Id love to conduct the London Philharmonic!
The happy couple:
Matsuura and Vibri.
Those button
combinations explained.
IN THE KNOW
PUBLISHER: SONY
DEVELOPER: NANAONSHA
PLATFORMS: PLAYSTATION
RELEASED: 1999
GENRE: RHYTHM ACTION
PLAYSTATION | 119
GOOD VIBRATIONS
Though not direct Mojib-Ribbon PS2 (2003)
The same concept as Vib-Ribbon
sequels, Matsuura
but using text les. At that time, the
PS2 was trying to be net-oriented.
and his team have
Our focus was a simple text message,
created two spiritual
which would be exchangeable online.
We wanted to carry it into the game.
successors to
Next, we found a speech synthesizer
Vib-Ribbon, though
developed by a Japanese phone
company, and we hooked it to a PS2.
neither got a release
We worked with the engineer for
outside Japan
almost two years so if you input a text
le it would rap the rhythm. We made
kind of a rap-thesizer!
120 | PLAYSTATION
DEVELOPER
HIGHLIGHTS
PARAPPA THE RAPPER
SYSTEM: PSONE
YEAR: 1996
SYSTEM: WONDERSWAN
YEAR: 2000
MAJOR MINORS
MAJESTIC MARCH PICTURED
SYSTEM: WII
YEAR: 2008
PLAYSTATION | 121
W
IN THE KNOW
PUBLISHER: INFOGRAMES
RELEASED: 2000
DEVELOPER:
INFOGRAMES SHEFFIELD
PLATFORM: PLAYSTATION, PC
GENRE: STRATEGY
122 | PLAYSTATION
Its always good to reach out and touch one of your old friends.
Although pigs flying isnt out of the question in this game, swimming sadly is.
SOUNDS
FUNNY
THERES AN
EXTREMELY homegrown and localised sense of
humour to Hogs Of War, with
a lot of the humour relying
on well-known national
stereotypes. However, Hogs
is more silly than jingoistic.
In every dierent territory
that it went out in, we had a
dierent personality doing
the voices for it, remembers
Jacob. So, in France, they had
French comedians that were
voicing it; Germany had people
that were known in Germany,
and so on and so forth.
Although it had this very
British feel, and these European
stereotypes perhaps not
particularly politically correct
ones if you played the French
version it had the same about
the English. In every European
territory it had their stereotypes
of how they saw every other
European country, so it was
very balanced. It was extremely
popular in Germany.
PLAYSTATION | 123
124 | PLAYSTATION
r
How Dino Crisis nearly made it to Game Boy Colo
PLAYSTATION | 125
Coming face-to-face
with T-Rex, the sense of
helplessness is overwhelming.
126 | PLAYSTATION
QThis controversial
THE EVIL
WITHIN
QGood to see hes still got
it. Mikamis new project
looks incredible, very
much a traditional horror
experience but one where
next-gen visuals will be
able to genuinely affect
and scare players. Gulp.
PLAYSTATION | 127
DINOPARK
TYCOON (1993)
QWhat could be better than
TUROK: DINOSAUR
HUNTER (1997)
QIts a dirty word these days but,
in the Nineties, Turok could do no
wrong. Both this and its sequel
feature loads of dinosaurs
to shoot some modded in
amusing, Dinoriders fashion
and Rage Wars set a benchmark
for console deathmatches. What
happened to you, Turok? Sob.
128 | PLAYSTATION
TRESPASSER (1998)
QAnother Jurassic Park title, sure, but this list wouldnt be complete without
this inept shooter. After promising the moon on a stick, the only things
Trespasser delivered were a graphics engine that only about eight PCs on the
planet could make look good at that time and accidental hilarity in the way
protagonist Anne (voiced by Minnie Driver) interacts with the world. Too bad.
PLAYSTATION | 129
;/,+0=0+,!
,5,40,:>0;/05
Publisher:
Viacom New Media
Developer:
Radical Entertainment
Platforms: PlayStation,
PC
Released: 1996
Genre: Adventure
OTHER VERSIONS
Other versions of The Divide: Enemies Within were developed by
Radical Entertainment. One release was a PC version, receiving even
less fanfare than the PSOne game. Reviewers of the day were harsh,
flaying for having pre-set save areas rather than quick-saving. Needing
a Windows 95 based Pentium PC with 133Mhz and 16Mb RAM, this
might be a cheaper option for some, and at the very least an interesting
curio to own. More interestingly is that according to Greg James, who
was Programmer and QA Director at Radical Entertainment, they also
developed a Sega Saturn version. Having never seen one in the wild,
were sure collectors would pay big money for a beta copy
130 | PLAYSTATION
try
a Rift, the enemies will
Be wary in the Lav
here
ambush you as shown
MOROPUS THE
CLAWED BEARHORSE
(SIC)
PAPILLION
THE BAD SEED
GIANWHU THE
CRABBY ASSASSIN
GASTRO
THE LIZARD KING
MAGICAL MOMENT
There were many magical moments
where it hit you just how inspired by
Metroid things are. Cynics may call it
plagiarism and unoriginal, but we say
its the sincerest form of flattery. There
are Power Bombs, Missiles and 99
unit Energy Tanks that resonate with
a familiar chime when collected, not
to mention an expanding map, several
elevators, and more.
to
PLAYSTATION | 131
1
REPAIR KIT
TERRAIN MAPPER
3
JUMPER UNIT
TRANSPORTER KEY
this one
5
HEATING UNIT
ARMOUR
132 | PLAYSTATION
missiles.
ge all your energy and
An area to rechar
with
tr Okay! Well stop
Wait, didnt Super Me
the comparisons
ws how
onscious for god kno
While you were unc
ted the Terragator unit
long, someone replica
LOCATION, LOCATION
The Divides organic environments are varied and hostile
probes
Weapons, items and
levels.
The status screen:
rent ammo and energy
acquired, plus your cur
PLANET SURFACE
FOREST CANYON
JUNGLE GORGE
1
es a short
being discovered, ther
Prior to the planet
to things
you
m
usto
acc
to
training mission
SKRIT
ICE CHASMS
DESERT ARROYO
LAVA RIFT
rt machine
This handy transpo
removes the need for
ances
backtracking long dist
that
A scorching area
g?
can cause overheatin
KIMPH
FOREST MOLE
DOZER
KRITAH
PLAYSTATION | 133
ke sure you
of weapons, so ma
Theres a variety one for each situation.
t
bes
the
always have
a U-boat in
sneaking about
Objectives, like
H s level design.
MO
to
l
gra
inte
disguise, were
134 | PLAYSTATION
ng
also finely tuned, givi
Hit reactions were
berate pace.
them game a more deli
IN THE
KNOW
The OSS wa
s used as a ba
writers conte
ck
xt to the send drop, since it gave MOH
s
player all acro
ss Europe.
THE REAL
MEDAL OF H
ONOR
Though h
based on real
Medal Of Hono
because som
r recipients,
e of their stor
ies are amaz
one guy, John
ing. Theres
Robert Fox, wh
o was a forw
observer durin
ard
g a siege by Ge
rman troops
a town in Italy.
on
He was calling
in artillery an
basically, for
d
him to actual
ly stop the ad
the German co
vance of
lumn, he had
to call in an ar
strike on his
tillery
own position
. They warned
he could die
him that
but he did it an
yway, and th
they found hi
en later
s body. That
would have be
amazing miss
en an
ion, putting yo
u in the posit
where you re
ion
alise, o the
top of your ow
that you have
n head,
to do this and
youll probab
ly die.
PLAYSTATION | 135
Christopher Cross
Dale Dye, Spielbergs technical advisor on Saving Private
Ryan, would later join the Medal Of Honor franchise.
136 | PLAYSTATION
DEVELOPER
HIGHLIGHTS
JAWS
HOOK
MINORITY REPORT:
EVERYBODY RUNS
PLAYSTATION | 137
launcher to
et
ck
ro
a
p
ra
st
u
yo
en
h
w
What do you get
able cult
or
em
m
t
os
m
s
n
tio
ta
yS
a car? One of the Pla ick Thorpe revisits the long-running
classics, of course! Ne and Michael Riccio
series with David Ja
t have
route to anger. We don
ridlock is the quickest
e. Even
tru
its
us,
st
tru
but
any data to back that up,
, the
ed to queuing as the UK
in a place as accustom
losive rage
exp
s
pire
ins
line
in
g
simple act of waitin
ne
m the inside of a machi
when experienced fro
g fast and
vin
mo
of
act
the
for
ly
designed specical
annered anger
m boy racers to mild-m
this aficts everyone fro
ht not be surprised
mig
you
t,
fac
t
tha
en
Giv
management experts.
PlayStation
yhem of long-running
to hear that vehicular ma
c jam.
traf
a
in
ts
roo
its
has
franchise Twisted Metal
gesoft
Allan Becker at Sony Ima
Myself, Mike Giam, and
neers
pio
the
re
we
& Sutherland, who
had gone out to Evans
creator of
cofe,
Jaf
id
Dav
s
lain
exp
of real-time 3D graphics,
t known as a
. The company was bes
the Twisted Metal series
e sought
om
bec
had
but
s,
tion
ula
producer of military sim
G
David Jaffe
138 | PLAYSTATION
Michael Riccio
TWISTED
METAL 101
PLAYSTATION | 139
a
me
Metal beca
es in that territory, though sales
went on to sell over a million copi
elsewhere were less impressive.
was already looking
efore these results were in, the team
d remembers
Davi
as
gh
thou
ct,
proje
w-up
follo
to do a
l. We knew
Meta
ted
Twis
to
el
it wasnt strictly a sequ
c again because it had
leTra
Sing
with
work
to
ted
wan
we
it was a great developer, but
been a really good relationship and
l was going to be a dead in
we were convinced that Twisted Meta
physics were too wonky
the
ght
thou
we
the water title because
these problems,
solve
To
and the controls were too esoteric.
that moved
epts
conc
rent
diffe
of
ty
varie
a
the team explored
had a ooded
We
cles.
vehi
nal
away from the use of conventio
hover-taxis travelling
and
rty
Libe
Of
e
Statu
a
with
New York City
was so we could get strang
around it, and the reason we did that
a much more accepted,
into the game, which at the time was
r. We also explored
rolle
cont
the
use
understandable way to
going to become like an insect
were
they
so
ts,
insec
them
ing
mak
speed down. Obviously once
ghting game so we could slow the
d a legion of fans, at least
foun
[Twisted Metal ] hit the market and
ow.
wind
the
out
t
wen
all
in America, that
sequel that implemented
Twisted Metal 2: World Tour was a
r visuals and larger stages,
bette
as
such
ents
ovem
impr
the usual
cities, but offered a lot
nal
natio
inter
this time themed around
interactive, with plenty of
more besides. Each level was more
perative mode was also
co-o
er
play
twoA
secrets to discover.
addition to the excellent
ome
added to the game, providing a welc
ever, the biggest
How
nal.
origi
the
of
er
iplay
competitive mult
B
The original Twisted Metal took
place solely in Los Angeles, a nod to
the games conception.
with
trafc and grew up
nture was just one of a
Mel Gibsons post-apocalyptic adve
the team drew upon.
and
d
Davi
that
es
uenc
diverse set of in
t action movies, Car
grea
from
es
We were inspired by car chas
s like Autoduel,
thing
and
es
Gam
son
Jack
e
Stev
Wars from
e wasnt hard,
ogam
vide
a
into
that
notes the designer. Turning
hanically and
mec
both
ies
either. Merge that with the sensibilit
y into at the
reall
were
we
h
whic
,
bat
Kom
thematically of Mortal
well. This
as
e
uenc
in
big
a
time Mario Kart battle mode was
l drive
Meta
ted
Twis
for
ula
form
the
me
initial concept beco
other drivers and be the last
around 3D environments, blow up
iving a single wish from the
rece
er
winn
the
with
,
man standing
pso. These wishes went
Caly
,
niser
enigmatic tournament orga
, more often than not.
horribly wrong for their recipients
e that SingleTrac was
gam
only
the
t
Twisted Metal wasn
Warhawk was also being
as
,
time
the
at
Sony
for
g
lopin
deve
two separate teams, but
developed by the team. There were
d explains, effects
Davi
there was a lot of cross-pollination,
swathes of code
sive
mas
ed,
shar
were
ds
were shared, soun
l has swarmer
Meta
ted
Twis
in
were shared. Youll see Warthog
from Warhawk.
iles
miss
mer
swar
t
exac
the
are
missiles that
it seemed as if Twisted Metal
However, as development wore on
really the golden child
was destined to op. Warhawk was
test and they all loved
s
focu
one
did
We
for the longest time.
Metal was utter shit,
ted
Warhawk and they just thought Twis
Players werent the
.
over
ers
care
my
it,
s
and I was like that
game either, as the
the
for
only ones who didnt seem to care
Marketing came in,
de
ldwi
Wor
r
mbe
reme
I
lls.
developer reca
they could not
and
es
gam
the
all
and we were showing them
but Warhawk came up and
,
l
Meta
ted
Twis
for
less
any
d
have care
zing and I was in the depths of
it was like oh my god, this is ama
f**k, Im nished before I start!
despair, you know, like what the
140 | PLAYSTATION
ge in the
orable combatants to engaon
Meet some of the most mem
aggressi
Twisted Metal tournaments automotive
AXEL
QAxels father forced
MR GRIMM
QWith all the death inherent
NEEDLES
KANE
QSweet Tooths driver is the face of
Twisted Metal, appearing in every game
with his iconic mask and flaming head. The
events of the games often revolve around
this psychotic killer indeed, at times it is
implied that the tournament is the product
of his broken psyche, and that he is the
natural heir to Calypso. His wish
changes in each game.
CARL
ROBERTS
KRISTA
SPARKS
MARCUS
KANE
QRoadkills driver has been
homeless for years. As a conspiracy
theorist, he believes that the world of
Twisted Metal is not real and desires
to return to a normal life. Given
his surname, we suspect that
he might not be who he
thinks he is.
PLAYSTATION | 141
the
for
k
dtrac
soun
a licensed
Pitchshifter.
and
bie
Zom
Rob
industrial metal artists
critical reception in
Twisted Metal III launched to a poor
heavily praised and the
October 1998. The soundtrack was
but reviewers complained
,
visuals received a mixed reception
low standard and that the
a
of
was
n
desig
level
that the games
the game, due to the
to
tal
men
new physics model was detri
ip over. The majority
ld
wou
car
your
h
whic
with
frequency
competing titles such as
of critics suggested that players try
but Twisted Metal III managed
Vigilante 8 and Rogue Trip instead,
over a million copies.
ing
shift
n
agai
s,
to sell well regardles
a punishing schedule,
to
Twisted Metal 4 was developed
the reality was normal
but
,
year
a
had
We
lls.
as Michael reca
crunching, working
just
then
and
hours for the rst six months
dule took its toll on the
sche
h
toug
The
l.
bruta
was
it
weekends
liked each other after the
staff I wouldn't say that everyone
we got four months off
But
ael.
Mich
hs
laug
,
done
was
project
The fourth game in the
age.
that
at
it
h
at the end, so it was wort
S WE E T RIDE S
in the Twisted
Over 50 individual vehicles have appeared
SWEET TOOTH
lm Cone
SPECIAL WEAPON:
142 | PLAYSTATION
THE
SCRAPYARD
These Twisted Metal concepts
were broken down for parts
before hitting the shelves
Over the years, details have emerged
regarding various scrapped Twisted Metal
projects. The rst of these was Twisted
Metal: Harbor City, a PlayStation 2 sequel to
Twisted Metal: Black which was started in
2003. Though the game was scrapped, four
stages and a new character, Severed Sam,
had been completed, and the remnants of
the game were included in Twisted Metal
Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition as Twisted
Metal Lost. This was accompanied by a
story which explained that the game was
le unnished due to the deaths of six key
members of the team though this turned
out to be fake. Other scrapped concepts were
intended for the PlayStation 3. The rst was
Twisted Metal: Apocalypse, a game for which
some design work exists, including art of
Needles Kane in a gas mask. This wasnt
to the taste of co-director Scott Campbell,
who isnt a fan of post-apocalyptic themes.
Another theme involved a more urban style,
with more realistic depictions of characters
as gang members. Neither of these concepts
made it to any kind of playable product, with
the PlayStation 3 Twisted Metal eventually
taking a relatively traditional approach to the
established narrative of the series.
Competitors introduced in
Twisted Metal III, such as
Flower Power, didnt last long
in the series.
urites
Metal series here are some of our favo
MR GRIMM Spawn
SPECIAL WEAPON:
THUMPER
AXEL
MR SLAM
TWISTER
PLAYSTATION | 143
TOKYO
TOWER
BIG BEN
LOCATION: London, UK
GAME: Twisted Metal III
was
Q Given that Tokyos iconic tower
inspired by the Eiffel Tower, its natural
for the Twisted Metal crew to want to
blow it up. A bomb placed underneath
the tower will take out TV and radio
services for the populous
STATUE
OF LIBERTY USA
metropolis.
can
QYou cant get up close to it, but you
trigger a three-part destruction sequence.
The first stage lights the torch, the
second sees it break away to reveal
a bikini-clad lady, and the last
destroys it fully.
GREAT
SPHINX
HOLLYWOOD
SIGN
EIFFEL
TOWER
144 | PLAYSTATION
WRITEOFFS
Twisted Metal has
inspired rivals over
the years heres a
few of them
The use of radio-controlled
cars in large environments
is often reminiscent of the
popular Re-Volt.
the
ming
arrived on the PSP, beco
a direct sequel to
was
e
gam
The
s.
serie
the
in
y
entr
again focused on a range
Twisted Metal: World Tour and once
iconic locations such as
and
new
with
,
ions
locat
nal
of internatio
such Paris and Tokyo.
s
urite
favo
past
Athens and Rome joining
drawn from the
rally
gene
Vehicles and characters were also
continued from
es
stori
ng
endi
s
-On
past releases, and Head
y addition was the
epla
gam
new
those in World Tour. The biggest
players avoiding
saw
h
whic
es
-gam
mini
e
stag
inclusion of midacters and extra
char
le
ckab
unlo
obstacles against the clock, with
rds.
rewa
as
able
avail
power-ups
well, with similar criticisms
Twisted Metal: Head-On reviewed
single-player but far better with
as the rst game it was good in
analogue control scheme
the
lly,
tiona
human opposition. Addi
onsive and just plain
-resp
was roundly criticised as being over
to up and down.
ped
map
were
e
brak
and
e
odd, as accelerat
-On entitled Extra
Head
l:
Meta
An enhanced version of Twisted
North America in
in
PS2
the
for
sed
relea
was
on
Twisted Editi
e and enhanced visuals, as well
2008, and contained an extra stag
fans.
as a variety of extras for hardcore
s was simply titled Twisted
The most recent outing in the serie
PlayStation 3. The original
Metal, and rebooted the series on
rience, as David explains.
expe
mal
mini
outline was for a very
Sleep Play, and we
Eat
d
We had started a company calle
t to do a small,
wan
we
'hey,
said
and
had gone to Sony
l, we dont think it
Meta
ted
Twis
downloadable-only version of
seems shrewd in light
e
mov
The
t.'
poin
price
$60
a
can sustain
taken off, but this was early
of how downloadable games have
wasn't yet understood. I
et
mark
the
and
cycle
life
s
PS3'
in the
s at Sony who were like 'we
exec
ness
busi
remember there were
s not viable, we know
that
dont know how thats going to sell,
.' With that, David and
them
sell
and
s
boxe
in
s
how to put thing
title.
full
the team set out to make a nal
reboot, and was unusual in
2012's Twisted Metal was another
stripped back to just three
was
n
paig
that the single-player cam
and a new Krista Sparks
m
Grim
Mr
,
Kane
les
Need
s
character
ld Tour character. Stories
Wor
l:
Meta
ted
unconnected to the Twis
s, a nod to the ones
cene
cuts
were told through live action FMV
VIGILANTE 8 1998:
QLuxofluxs spin-off of
ROGUE TRIP:
VACATION 2012
1998:
QSingleTrac came up with
a unique spin on car combat
which sees players carrying
tourists to post-apocalyptic
sightseeing spots.
the
for
ts
actual racing even
nt that David
exte
the
to
The
n tempered by problems
actio
core
the
reviews, with praise for
esTM awarded the title 7/10,
with the online component Gam
s and an anachronistic
error
ork
netw
ent
referencing frequ
d says: to Sony's credit,
Davi
interface. Reecting on the title,
wasnt a massive hit, but
it
think
I
and
out
e
cam
l
Twisted Meta
it could do at $60. But
ght
thou
it certainly did better than we
than we wanted it
more
way
ent
lopm
deve
ch
stret
it really did
use it was just a
beca
ct,
proje
r
-yea
three
to it ended up being a
ll team. After
sma
a
for such
long time to make all that content
that he had no
d
state
d
Davi
PS3,
for
l
Meta
the release of Twisted
, and Sony
time
long
very
a
plans to work on Twisted Metal for
be appearing on
will
s
serie
the
that
ation
indic
hasnt given any
been little news of the lm
its current platforms. There has also
written and directed by
g
bein
y
rtedl
repo
is
h
whic
adaptation,
Ghost Rider: Spirit Of
and
k
Cran
for
Brian Taylor (best known
2012.
in
d
unce
anno
was
it
since
),
e
Vengeanc
of Twisted Metal
age
carn
the
that
s
For now then, it seem
inly left some
certa
has
it
,
has nally come to a halt. However
gaming
the
of
e
scap
land
the
on
s
mark
impressive scorch
mo as one
Turis
Gran
of
likes
industry, ranking alongside the
series, providing
sive
exclu
on
Stati
Play
ng
unni
of the longest-r
and a distinctive cast of
a great deal of memorable action
ldn't be surprised if the series
wou
inly
certa
we
And
s.
character
use if there's one thing
beca
e
futur
did make a return in the
s, it's that Calypso has an
know
fan
l
Meta
ted
Twis
cated
a dedi
laugh.
incredible talent for getting the last
STAR WARS:
DEMOLITION 2000
QKeen to milk the Star Wars
WWE CRUSH
HOUR 2003
QWere not sure if we needed a
WWE vehicular combat game,
but Pacific Coast Power And
Light thought otherwise.
PLAYSTATION | 145
DESTRUCTION DERBY
here did the idea for
Destruction Derby originally
come from?
Martin Edmondson and
Michael Troughton, my brother,
together came up with the concept
and design for the game. Martin was a
big fan of real-life demolition derbies.
We initially pitched it to Sony, along
with a technology demo showing
that we were more than capable of
getting it done.
W
IN THE KNOW
PUBLISHER: PSYGNOSIS
DEVELOPER:
REFLECTIONS INTERACTIVE
PLATFORM: PLAYSTATION,
PC, SEGA SATURN
RELEASED: 1995
GENRE: RACING
146 | PLAYSTATION
PLAY IT
AGAIN
One of the great features of Destruction
Derby was its replay editor. Given the
chaotic nature of the game, it was
possible to pull off some wonderful
crashes, and it was inevitable that
youd want to play them back. The
replay editor let you not only replay
your scenes but chop out the bits you
didnt like and position the camera in all
sorts of ways to really milk the best of
moments. It was like watching Eighties
television stunts, only you were in
control of the action.
Martin Edmondson, MD of
Reflections at the time, saw this as
one of the main features. Hed always
had a dream to be a Hollywood
director, I think. Stuntman, a game that
Reflections made many years later,
was one that hed often told us about.
Wed laughed it off as something that
would never work.
DEVELOPER
HIGHLIGHTS
DRIVER PICTURED
SYSTEM: PLAYSTATION, PC
YEAR: 1999
SHADOW OF THE BEAST
SYSTEM: AMIGA, ATARI ST,
AMSTRAD CPC, C64, MEGA
DRIVE, LYNX, MASTER
SYSTEM, SPECTRUM
YEAR: 1989
STUNTMAN
SYSTEM: PLAYSTATION 2
YEAR: 2002
PLAYSTATION | 147
L O V I N G
Archer MacLean
What do you think of
Lara Cro?
Lara Cro has to be
one of the rst human
type game characters
to break out into the
real world, with fame
assured due to constantly looking like she
was about to bust out of her Lycra!
She is certainly a media icon, and
aer a dozen game titles shes gained
enough momentum for Hollywood to
make two full-on lms, with a third in
the making. Short of running for
president, how much more famous
can you get?
PLAYSTATION | 149
Laras rst
adventure had
everything:
gorgeous
visuals,
exhilarating set
pieces, devilish
puzzles and a spunky central character.
Add in huge environments to explore
and it is little wonder that Tomb Raider
became such a success.
Laras
second outing
featured
improved
visuals, a far
greater variety
in its locations
and a smattering of new moves for its
heroine to enjoy. It also enabled Lara
to ride a selection of vehicles and was
another smash hit for Core Design.
Tomb Raider:
Unnished Business 1998
Released
to tie in with
Tomb Raiders
Mac release,
Unnished
Business
consisted of
the original game and two additional
expert chapters. They were created in
San Francisco by Eidos.
Nonlinearity to
Tomb Raider III
meant it was
possible to
complete
stages in
a variety of ways. Add in a new save
system and a better balance between
action and exploration and it was third
time lucky for Lara.
150 | PLAYSTATION
Tomb Raider:
The Last Revelation 1999
Tomb Raider
Level Editor 2000
Heres
where it
started to fall
apart. A dull
adventure,
unimaginative
set pieces
and poor level design meant The Last
Revelation was a disappointment. Playing
as young Lara was a nice touch, though.
Only
available for
the PC, this
does exactly
as youd expect
and is a fairly
comprehensive
level editor. Its helped create a huge and
active fan community on the net and is
still in wide use today.
Sometimes
referred to as
Tomb Raider III
Gold, this is a
sequel to part
III and released
exclusively on
the PC. Full of variety, it starts o in the
Scottish Highlands and ends up in the
catacombs of Paris.
main game
into smaller
ashback
levels is a nice
touch, but
Chronicles
feels rather tired. The grappling hook
makes an early appearance, and Lara
gets a few new moves, but this is a pretty
bland eort.
Despite
sharing
elements with
the original
game, Tomb
Raider on the
Game Boy
Color is a completely dierent adventure
with a new plot and 2D visuals. Its the
rst Tomb Raider on a Nintendo console.
PLAYSTATION | 151
Tomb Raider:
The Prophecy 2002
A far more
accomplished
Game Boy
follow-up
that features
excellent
visuals, a nice
blend of exploration and action and some
intriguing puzzles. Its still simple stu,
but nevertheless works a treat.
This was
a simplistic
platformer
created for
Sky Gamestar.
There are a
total of ten
levels to
explore but tricky controls mean that its
fairly hard to nish.
Although
it features
excellent
visuals and
plenty of
variety, Laras
rst GBA
outing isnt really that memorable. Little
wonder, then, that no other adventures
appeared on the platform.
Armageddon
changes the
concept of
the original
two games
by having you
nish the nal
stage in a tight time limit. Its an otherwise
perfect time-waster that suers like the
other games.
Nell McAndrew
1998
152 | PLAYSTATION
Simon Pick
Senior soware engineer,
Electronic Arts
What impact did the rst
Tomb Raider game have on you?
I was annoyed that it was so good! We
released Die Hard Trilogy at around
the same time and I remember
standing in the Virgin Megastore on
Oxford Street watching a kid playing
it and thinking: Damn! Why does it have to be so good? No
one is going to buy our game now. On Die Hard Trilogy we
struggled to create 3D enemies I was convinced that it was
impossible to produce a fully skinned character and keep the
frame rate reasonable. Lara proved me completely wrong.
What do you think of Lara Cro as a character?
She proved that you could create a large 3D character that
was engaging. Before Lara, game characters were all
tiny random characters with no personality. There was a
connection with the player that no previous game character
had. A few years back I was hiring animators and modellers
for a new game, when in walked Lara Cro ponytail, small
round glasses, backpack, khaki pants, the works. It would
have been a genius interview technique, had I not been mied
that Tomb Raider stole some of our Die Hard Trilogy sales! I
hope her eorts paid o with a more reasonable interviewer.
Tomb Raider:
Tomb Raider Episode 4:
The Angel Of Darkness 2003 Temple Of Anubis 2003
Tomb Raider:
The Osiris Codex 2003
Tomb Raider:
Quest For Cinnabar 2004
Tomb Raider:
Elixir Of Life 2005
Missing
numerous
deadlines,
Laras PS2
outing felt
outdated as
soon as it was
released. Riddled with bugs, it has some
strong ideas but it just feels like old hat. It
was Core Designs last Tomb Raider.
Laras
rst mobile
phone game
is surprisingly
fun. Its a 2D
platformer
with plenty
of run-and-gun elements and the odd
puzzle to solve. Solid and slick, its well
worth investigating.
This is
the second
episode of
Laras mobile
adventures
and it is pretty
much business
as usual. Lara is now looking for a new
relic, but otherwise it features the same
solid platforming as before.
Laras
nal mobile
adventure
was a tting
send-o,
easily building
up what had
happened in the previous two games. It
was a little more polished visually and a
mite tougher, but still highly enjoyable.
Laras fourth
outing on
Skys Digibox
sticks to the
same tried and
tested formula
as before,
with the same number of levels and
same gameplay. Needless to say, it was
beginning to get tiring.
Fans began to
question whether a
year was enough to
make a new game
concerns about the new modern direction that Lara
and the franchise was heading in, but the sequel was
still a huge success for both Core and Sony, greatly
outselling the original and ensuring that Core Design
would be in charge of getting another game out in time
for the lucrative Christmas season again.
Lara was still enjoying huge success as Core began
working on part three, but the cracks of working to
such a strict schedule were beginning to show. Early
previews of Tomb Raider III, while generally positive,
were beginning to question whether a year was
enough time to work on a completely new game.
Granted, Lara herself would get many new
abilities monkey swinging being by far the most
useful but, for many, it didnt seem enough.
Hot off her stage appearance with U2 on their
PopMart Tour, Lara launched a singing career; or rather,
Rhona Mitra launched a singing career using
the Lara Croft name. Produced by the Eurythmics
Dave Stewart, the album Come Alive was an
unbelievably cheesy affair consisting of amazingly
poor Europop tunes that did little to enhance Laras
image as a globe-trotting adventurer. Unfortunately for
Rhona, debut single Getting Naked was a less than
PLAYSTATION | 153
Tomb Raider:
The Reckoning 2006
Tomb Raider
iDVD Game 2006
Tomb Raider:
Legend 2006
Lara Cros
Party Poker 2006
This
was Laras
very rst
video slots
outing by
Microgaming. The standard
spinning reel action is punctuated
by occasional mini-games and
it makes for an interesting Lara
Cro spin-o.
Another
side-on
quest for
Lara that
played like
a cross between the Game Boy
Color titles and the later Sky
Digital games that were released.
It was available live in Canada via
Bell ExpressVu.
Utilising
Angel Of
Darkness
footage
because
Legend was still in development,
this was an interesting attempt
to capture the casual market by
splicing footage of the PC version
with Dragons Lair-style controls.
Crystal
Dynamics
breathed
new life into
Lara thanks
to solid combat mechanics,
clever use of QTE, and a solid
balance between adventuring and
exploring. An excellent reboot of
the franchise.
Based on
elements
from Legend,
Puzzle
Paradox
is a solid little mobile release
that borrows from Gremlins
Deector and Sudoku. Nothing
earth-shattering, but good fun all
the same.
This is
nothing
more than
poker with
Laras name
attached. Youll battle a selection
of Eidos characters including
Gex and Kain before you get
to take on the mad card skills of
Lara herself.
154 | PLAYSTATION
the day, Lara was our icon and what we didnt want
was a movie damaging Lara. I personally had a lot of
involvement, from script to directors to cast.
Although Heath-Smith was able to help guide Laras
big-screen outings, the same magic was not sprinkled
on Cores last game. Constantly delayed and nally
shipping with numerous bugs, Tomb Raider: The Angel
Of Darkness was a massive disappointment for both
Core and Eidos, receiving average scores from all
corners of the gaming community and causing Eidos to
have a massive rethink about the franchises future.
I listened to far too many people and there was a
huge amount of pressure put on us, begins HeathSmith when asked about Laras darkest videogame
moment. We actually let the marketing people get
involved, which was our biggest mistake. We wanted
to do an updated version of the original Tomb Raider,
but they were like: No, you cant do that. We need
to bring her into a new age and make her far more
interactive. Sadly we were just too over-engineered and
it was actually thought about too much. It was a shame
because the work that was put into that game I cant
even begin to tell you. The man-hours in that game
were huge, absolutely huge. The biggest problem with
it was the controls. We just struggled and struggled
with getting the controls right and trying to do so much
with her. Again we just over-engineered it. We should
have done what we did on the other ve games and
simply told them all to bugger off. Sadly the commercial
Tomb Raider
Anniversary 2007
Tomb Raider
Underworld 2008
Taking
over from
Core Design,
Crystal
Dynamics
revisited and expanded upon the
original game. Its not quite as
polished as Legend, but remains
a tting tribute to Laras very rst
adventure, ably updated.
Secret
Of The
Sword was
a video slot
machine that
featured Lara performing Tomb
Raider-themed tasks like shooting
targets in the bonus rounds.
Fans of the series unsurprisingly
shouldnt go out of their way.
Although
Nathan
Drake steals
Laras
thunder
a little, we really enjoyed
Underworld. An interesting setting
and improved mechanics meant
another hit for both Eidos and
Crystal Dynamics.
Laras
rst co-op
adventure
is already
looking like a
hell of a lot of fun and successfully
blends Robotron-style controls
with some impressive puzzles in
a downloadable package. It also
looks beautiful.
Aer a
number of
traditional
Tomb Raider
games,
Crystal Dynamics was allowed
to shake up the franchise. The
end result was a survival horrorbased romp with heavy nods to
Naughty Dogs Uncharted series.
Crystal
Dynamics
delivered
another
twin-stick
shooter, this time with four-player
action. Sadly, it was a ghastly dull
aair that failed to capture the
clever splice of action and puzzles
that the rst game oered.
PLAYSTATION | 155
THE LAST OF US
ION
DRAKES DECE[PT
UNCHAR TED 3:
DREAM ZONE
UNCHARTE D
CRASH BANDICOOT
RINGS OF POWER
FRO M TH E
RETRO GAMER DIGS UP THE FILES OF THE CLASSIC COMPANIES OF OLD
Naughty Dog
From two ambitious school friends to the most
creatively signicant PlayStation developer of today,
Naughty Dog co-founder Andy Gavin talks us
through the companys impressive evolution
hatever you were up to in
school at age 12, it most likely
didnt lay down your career
path for the next 20 years. Naughty
Dog co-founder Andy Gavin met his
future creative partner Jason Rubin at
this age in 1982 and, united by their
fascination with programming on the
Apple II+, the two learned how to make
games through experimentation and
collaboration. Naughty Dog is today
renowned for its showstopping blend
of cinematic storytelling with sharp
gameplay mechanics, and the dizzying
ambition of its two young co-founders
led to those core principles.
The rst game I ever programmed
was a crude RPG called VE2 that I wrote
rst on my school Heathkit and then on
my Apple II+, explains Andy. It had
you wander around a fantasy world and
randomly encounter orcs, kobolds and the
like. It wasnt so different than a singleplayer text Dark Tower.
When they met, Jasons games looked
superior, yet they frequently crashed;
Andys, on the other hand, were better
156 | PLAYSTATION
INSTANT EXPERT
The Simpsons creator Matt
Groening was a fan of the early
Crash games he said so on the
DVD commentary to the episode
Lisa Gets An A , which aired in
1998, where a Crash-like game
called Dash Dingo forms a central
part of the episodes storyline.
The original name for Naughty
Dog, JAM, stood for Jason and
Andys Magic.
Three of the Crash games rank in
the 20 bestselling titles on PSone.
The series shipped 30 million units
on the console across four games.
RRIOR
WAY OF THE WA
1982
158 | PLAYSTATION
1985
1994
1999
2001
2007
2009
TIMELINE
UNCHARTED 2: AMONG
THIEVES IS RELEASED TO
MONUMENTAL CRITICAL
ACCLAIM, AND RIGHTFULLY
SO ITS A PERFECTLY PACED
ACTION EXPERIENCE WITH
THE BEST TRAIN-RELATED
SET PIECE EVER.
2011
Andy Gavin
Andy co-founded the company Flektor with Jason Rubin after
leaving Naughty Dog, creating a web program that allowed for easy
online content mash-ups that quickly grew after its 2007 launch.
The duo sold it to Fox in 2009 for north of $20 million, just as
the latter was attempting to move into social media territory with
MySpace. Andy and Jason left soon after. Since then, Andy has
written two paranormal fantasy novels, Untimed and The Darkening
Dream, and blogs extensively about a variety of topics at
www.all-things-andy-gavin.com, where he often answers
questions about the series hes worked on. He also does some
rather entertaining write-ups of episodes of Game Of Thrones
and documents his memories of working at Naughty Dog, with
contributions from co-founder Jason Rubin.
Jason Rubin
Crash Team Racing was a sharp
alternative to Mario Kart on PlayStation,
with a nicely structured adventure mode.
PLAYSTATION | 159
160 | PLAYSTATION
DEFINING GAMES
Crash Bandicoot
IN THE KNOW
PUBLISHER: KONAMI
DEVELOPER: KONAMI
The bells! The bells!
RELEASED: 1997
PLATFORMS: PLAYSTATION, SATURN,
PSP, XBLA
GENRE: ADVENTURE
DEVELOPER
HIGHLIGHTS
DRACULA X:
RONDO OF BLOOD (PICTURED)
SYSTEMS: (PC ENGINE CD-ROM)
YEAR: 1993
NANO BREAKER
SYSTEMS: PS2
YEAR: 2005
164 | PLAYSTATION
FANGS FOR
THE MEMORIES
PLAYSTATION | 165
BONUS STAGE
166 | PLAYSTATION
Screens from the abandoned port for Tigers ill-advised Game.com console.
AYAMI
KOJIMA
Self-taught illustrator
Kojima is now so
inexorably linked with
the Castlevania franchise
that its easy to forget that
shes only been involved
since Symphony Of The
Night. Kojima started her
career by illustrating novel
covers, and branched
into videogames in 1997
with Symphony and the
Koei Sega Saturn strategy
title Sldnerschild. Her
contribution to Symphony
made her something
of legend among Castlevania enthusiasts and she went on to create further
artwork for Castlevania Chronicles (PSOne), Harmony Of Dissonance/Concerto
Of The Midnight Sun (GBA), Aria Of Sorrow/Minuet Of Dawn (GBA), Lament
Of Innocence (PS2) and Curse Of Darkness (PS2/Xbox). Her somewhat unique
representation of the male form highly feminine with lithe bodies and long,
owing locks has caused consternation among some sectors of Castlevania
fandom as her work has proven especially appealing to female Shonen-ai
(young man love) manga addicts.
PLAYSTATION | 167
168 | PLAYSTATION
PLAYSTATION | 169
170 | PLAYSTATION
MASANORI KATO
Mini making of
Ridge Racer
after Ridge Racer Revolution. Rave Racer had already been
developed at that time. This being said, its not entirely true that
Rave Racer was never converted to home consoles. In fact, we
kept in mind the fact that there is a woman in the opening of
Rave Racer. This was the introduction of Reiko Nagase. Also, the
Rave Racer circuits were incorporated in the PSP Ridge Racer
games, so the game hasnt been released for home consoles as
a standalone, but over the course of time, all of its content has
found its way into the Ridge Racer series.
PlayStation owners really didnt have cause to be too
disappointed, though, as the console received its own exclusive
sequel that same year. Despite improved visuals, two new
vehicles and a couple of new tracks, Ridge Racer Revolution
stuck close to the original template, particularly in terms of how
you progressed through the game. The notable new things that
Namco introduced in Revolution included two-player link-up
races, made better by the fact that you only needed one copy of
the game to set up a race, and the chance to adjust the speed
level of your car, hinting at the customisation elements that
would later be introduced. There are a few quirky aspects too,
such as buggy mode and squeaky voiced commentary, and
Galaga 88 also replaced Galaxian at the start of the game.
In the same year that Rage Racer and Revolution were
released, a third and pretty peculiar Ridge Racer game
also came out in Japan. Aimed specically at children, and
seemingly inspired by the buggy mode in Ridge Racer
Revolution, Pocket Racer was yet another reworked version
of the original arcade game that featured deformed vehicles
shaped like Choro-Q toy cars and simplied steering especially
catered towards making the game more accessible.
For the next game in the series, Rage Racer, Namco swapped
out the inviting, colourful aesthetics for more shiny, burnished
and realistic-looking visuals. In keeping with this new sense of
professionalism, Namco introduced the rst ever career mode
into the series too, in which players earned credits through
winning races to spend on purchasing new cars and upgrading
existing ones. Encompassing ve different classes with a secret
one unlocked at the end of the game, the career mode was
notable for giving players three chances to successfully nish a
heat, with failure to place third or higher in three tries clearing
you of all the trophies you had earned inside that attempt but
still allowing you to keep whatever cash and cars you had
accumulated up to that point.
This release was then followed up by Ridge Racer Type 4 the
following year, which continued down that same road. The nal
Ridge Racer game to appear on the PlayStation, Type 4 kept the
PLAYSTATION | 171
more realistic tone and look of Rage Racer, but was enhanced
by featuring gouraud-shaded visuals and an improved Grand
Prix mode in which players got to pick a racing team and car
manufacturer, and then competed in a series of races with their
team, investing in new cars along the way.
Type 4 also had more vehicles than had been seen in any
Ridge Racer before: an impressive 321, though made up of
only 40 or so models. Unlocked fully by nishing every race in
every possible combination of qualifying position, team and
manufacturer, lling your garage with them all certainly took
quite a bit of work, giving far more longevity to Type 4 than
previous instalments. Additionally, Type 4 was the rst in the
series to offer split-screen multiplayer and to allow players to
fully customise cars, and also broke tradition by introducing
an alternative, more realistic, grip type of handling on top of
the classic drift controls. Finally, packed with the game was a
second disc that contained an enhanced version of the original
Ridge Racer port. Dubbed Ridge Racer Hi-Spec Demo (or Ridge
Racer Turbo), it was a truncated version of the game that ran at
an impressive 60fps twice the frame rate of the original and
172 | PLAYSTATION
Galaga
Car #6 Galaga RT Carrot
Car #16 Galaga RT Plids
This very popular sequel to one of the
most successful coin-ops ever made,
Galaxian, is a fantastic and tense vertical
shooter that improves on the original
game in pretty much all areas. Retaining
the same insect alien-blasting as before,
Galaga adds a number of interesting
ideas and features to the mix, such as
bonus rounds.
Nebulasray
Car #8 Nebulasray
This little-known top-down shooter was
notable for using a distinct ray-tracing
technique to generate impressive and
realistic-looking 3D frigates and enemy
vehicles. Gorgeous to look at, fans of the
shooter genre should certainly investigate
the game be warned, however, that it
can be a pig to emulate.
Bosconian
Car #18 Bosconian
A game that many have heard of but
few have actually played, this eight-way
shooter sees you steering a ship and
trying to destroy a series of fortied bases
that look like watermelons while surviving
a co-operative onslaught of alien enemies
and space rocks. Its notable for being
one of the rst arcade games to feature
continue screens.
Xevious
Car #7 Xevious Red
Car #17 Xevious Green
Xevious is one of the earliest ever
examples of the vertical shooter. It was
also famed for its lush, vibrant-looking
graphics and clever enemy AI, which
allowed the game to be challenging
without the need to ll the screen with
enemies. In fact, the game is such a
classic that it received two mentions in
Ridge Racer, via Solvalou.
PLAYSTATION | 173
174 | PLAYSTATION
Dancing
Stage EuroMix
RETROREVIVAL
PLAYSTATION | 175
tri Spe
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of al
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